Most people do not understand how rare this cue actually is, and until it was first posted on the forum months back no knew it even existed. According to the research done when Victor Stein and Paul Rubino published the Billiards encyclopedia there were 8 Martin Ivory handled cues in existence, and only one was made to break down into four pieces. The only known cue that broke down into four pieces was made for Allen Gilbert, and according to the sources listed above this cue was unique.
With the exception of the unique cue listed above all other Ivory Handled cues made by Martin had 10 individual Ivory segments in the cues handles, except the cue that was made for Allen Gilbert which only had 9. This cue was sold to a collector awhile back for $30,000+ and this is where and how that price tag came into being.
Now, the cue that just sold on eBay also broke down into four pieces and like I said above no one knew the cue even existed until it was posted here on the forum months back. I was the one who identified the cue as a cue that broke down like the other cue above, I noticed that the cue only had 9 Ivory segments in the handle by the photo's that were posted. I contacted the forum member who owned the cue and had him check it to see if it would break down, which he did and it did. That made this cue 1 of 2 of the original 8, which means that only 6 don't break down. For this cue to have sold on eBay for it did, it has given some one who can afford to own it a great opportunity to realize a large return at a later date when the market corrects.
This cue is as rare as any Gus Szamboti cue that was ever made, and Harvey Martin was truly the father of Custom cue making in America even though he isn't given credit for it by many.
Hope this information helps, for more information check out the Billiards Encyclopedia starting on page 292.
