I have a friend who thinks she has a set of ivory pool balls. She inherited a table, balls and one piece cues from her Dad who purchased these in early 1960's. She thinks the items were old when her Dad got them. Does anyone have information about history of ivory balls and the value?
ivory pool balls
- Thread starter sonoman
- Start date
Ivory wasn't being used in the 60's for pool balls. I think that stopped early in the 20th century after Bakelite was developed.
If it is a full numbered set, put it on eBay for a 99 cent starting bid for 7 days
Call them "antique pool billiard ball set for cue sports"
Then buckle up, they will hit $2000
If you need any help selling these, let me know, I will give you all the tips I can to get top dollar
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One thing to be aware of, some sets came from the factory with ivory cue ball and clay balls. Full ivory sets with sixteen ivory balls were pretty rare. Billiard balls, three ball sets, of all ivory were more common.
A maker of pool balls, I think Brunswick, posted a $10,000 reward for an ivory substitute which was absolutely huge at the time. Most of the tusk wasn't suitable to make pool balls, only two or three balls could be made from a single tusk! I assume that the same small area was all that was used for ivory ferrules and joints too.
I think Bakelite was the first plastic used for balls and some of the early plastic developed fine cracks similar to ivory. Very tough for anyone less than an expert to determine ivory. Customs tests with a hot needle I believe.
Hu
A maker of pool balls, I think Brunswick, posted a $10,000 reward for an ivory substitute which was absolutely huge at the time. Most of the tusk wasn't suitable to make pool balls, only two or three balls could be made from a single tusk! I assume that the same small area was all that was used for ivory ferrules and joints too.
I think Bakelite was the first plastic used for balls and some of the early plastic developed fine cracks similar to ivory. Very tough for anyone less than an expert to determine ivory. Customs tests with a hot needle I believe.
Hu
Date is the key. They weren't making ivory pool balls in the 60's. 1860's, yes. 1960's, no.
Depends how "old" they were when he got them. 20 years old, very doubtful they are ivory. 50 years old in the '60's, possibly ivory. 80 years old in the 60's, ivory.
i believe celluloid was used for a short while before bakelite
Thanks! If I ever knew that I have forgotten. Maybe celluloid balls were the exploding balls? I remember reading about some pool balls that literally exploded.
One of those as the money ball would do my break lots of good, if I survived breaking!
Hu
Celluloid did explode yes
A set of antique ivory pool balls with good color and no noticeable major cracks would be worth $20,000 to $30,000. No one has used ivory pool balls since they found a replacement over a century ago. A few ivory cue balls may have remained in use, but not object balls. Ivory balls have to be trued -- turned down to be round again -- every five years or so. They would have also been re-dyed at that time.
The last set of ivory pool balls I saw on Ebay went for $4500 in 2000. They looked like the "double stripe set here, but not as nice. This is from the Stellinga book "Pool and Billiard Collectibles" from 20 years ago. Inflation. Restrictions on ivory. (click on image to see a larger version)
Thanks Bob, great information. Appreciate the picture too.
Not to be argumentative, only informative, but cracking in ivory balls is not necessarily a major factor in value for a full matching set. Some sets only survived because after they developed cracks, the owners in some cases put them away and bought new ones. Stan Laner had a full set in his display case in Chicago. He said they had been there since their store was first opened; they kept the deeply cracked balls to show potential ivory buyers what happened to some ivory in transit. This way they knew what they were getting into if they decided to buy a set of non-guaranteed balls. That set was eventually bought by Mark and Connie Stellinga. They are shown in their book on billiard collectibles, a single-striped set - the bottom set in the photo Bob Jewett posted above. The set was never used, and despite cracks is one of the cleanest sets ever found (they are the highest grade clear Zanzibar ivory.) In addition, they were the larger "professional size," 2-5/16" - which is one reason such a set was even made in the 1920's. Billiards Magazine, in their article covering the 1916 World Championship, stated that Emmett Blankenship sailed through the field, and implied that he may have won because he was the only player who was used to ivory balls. I have not looked this up in some time, but I think the last championship using ivory pool balls was 1927. I would look it up, but it is time for bed.
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way back at my home room you could use ivory billiard balls. they rolled father and better than the others especially with the slow cloth, being heavier.
any ivory of merit i would donate and take the tax write off and be done with it. before at some point it may come back to haunt you.
any ivory of merit i would donate and take the tax write off and be done with it. before at some point it may come back to haunt you.
I was reading an old book that said that english stayed with ivory balls longer too, more rails. I knew that ivory balls would get out of round and have to be sent off to be retrued which of course made them slightly smaller each time too. I had never considered that the ivory balls might have been better in some respects.
I agree that possession of ivory balls might lead to grief. I still might keep them if I had a decent set. Why I don't know. Just a strong connection to old things I guess.
Hu
Biloxi Boy
Man With A Golden Arm
If it can't be sold, it is valueless. How can one claim a write-off of a valueless item?
It may come back to haunt you.