This past week I stumbled across this cue and had the opportunity to buy it. I was fairly certain it was a Rambow but I wasn't sure if all of the inlays were original or if at some point it was embellished by another cuemaker. The current owner was not the original owner a was a bit vague on the details and it's history. He did tell me he had Ray Schuler and Deno Andrews inspect it in the mid 90's and confirm it was an all original Rambow. Here's what made me very concerned and nervous. I contacted Deno Andrews and emailed him pictures and he told me he had never seen the cue and he definitely would have remembered if he had. I also sent some pictures to several AZ members to get their input. After speaking with Paul Rubino several times I felt a little more comfortable about buying it as he said there was a 90% chance it was all original. The breakthrough actually came from Joe Van Buren over at Classic Cues, he not only gave me the idea to try to contact the original owner (whose name was stenciled on the cue) but he also found the guy's name and phone number in the White pages. It was kind of a longshot but he was the only Dan Dinick in Illinois and he was definitely old enough to have possibly purchased it. So I rolled the dice and called him and asked if he ever owned a Rambow. Jackpot- he was and he described the cue to a tee and said he sold it in the early 90's .I'm very proud to own this cue, I think it's very special and quite unique. The original owner told me he had a cue that he ordered a year earlier to be made by Rambow and after a year he got impatient with Rambow and went into the shop at Keefe and Hamer and even though his cue was still not finished he asked if he could buy one without having to wait any longer, so Herman Rambow had a display cue that he had made and that was in the store as an example of his work and he agreed to sell it to Dan Dinick and stencil his name on the cue. It turns out he even played Willie Mosconi with the cue at an exihibition. I really owe a lot to Joe Van Buren( he actually looked up the guy's name and phone number and gave me the idea to contact him , which was genius) and I owe a lot to you Paul Rubino, Joe Van Buren, Sean Brown (cueaddicts), Scott Benoit (cuenut) and Dan Spooner (toomnycues) and a few others that I'm probably missing for helping me and giving me the confidence to proceed with this deal. Anyhow, sorry about the long story let me let the pictures do the talking. Thank you again to everyone for your input and help.
Ryan
Ryan
