Pool Ball Collecting.

nykoolade said:
Thinking about picking up this set, does anyone have info on it? Seller says they bought it in the 70s.



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Aramith Seven Stripe set I believe it was the precursor to the Continental set we know today. The stripes are screened on and raised above the surface of the ball. It's a cool set and I have two one in pristine never played shape and one that has some wear.

The stripes tend to chip especially around the edges.

That set looks pretty good, stripes don't look damaged but I would not pay more than $50 for it, how much does the seller want?

Here is a photo of my good one for comparison, mine came with an Oxblood cue ball for some reason. No way it was original to the set and is probably from a numberless snooker set of the same time period.

Aramith-Continental-Seven-Stripes-set-2.jpg
 
Benelli said:
The stripes are screened on and raised above the surface of the ball.
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Benelli said:
The stripes tend to chip especially around the edges.
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That is interesting in a way! Does that mean you can really feel those stripes when you touch the ball? If so, I would imagine I would not want to play them in high precision/slow shot games like Straight Pool ....
 
Meucciplayer said:
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That is interesting in a way! Does that mean you can really feel those stripes when you touch the ball? If so, I would imagine I would not want to play them in high precision/slow shot games like Straight Pool ....
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yeah, when you run your finger over the stripes you can feel them, they're just screened on. I'm pretty sure this is what killed this design and moved Aramith to the Contential design we have today.

From a price point perspective, they need a cheap low-cost screened ball I'm pretty sure this was their first attempt at that and it was just that. A first attempt...

But I love the Deco quality of the design and was sad it did not show up in the new anniversary ball in some form.

Would be great to get a new modern version of this ball too!
 
Yeah, so it would certainly be more of a pure "collectors' ball" nowadays.

If you look at snooker players and how they have/get the balls cleaned because of miniscule hints of chalk or the people who try Straight Pool records ... this set of balls would not cut it. But in a modern version you could certainly cover the elevations in some kind of transparent layer which would make it look good without influencing precision gameplay.
 
Bob Jewett said:
The "cue ball" looks larger than the object balls. If so, and the object balls are 2 1/4, it is likely a carom ball.
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Yep, it's a Carom ball, forgot about that, I'd even mic'ed it... ugh
Meucciplayer said:
Yeah, so it would certainly be more of a pure "collectors' ball" nowadays.

If you look at snooker players and how they have/get the balls cleaned because of miniscule hints of chalk or the people who try Straight Pool records ... this set of balls would not cut it. But in a modern version you could certainly cover the elevations in some kind of transparent layer which would make it look good without influencing precision gameplay.
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And that's exactly the problem, when Aramith made this ball in the 70s I doubt they thought through how to put an additional layer on it that would smooth out where the inks were laid down for the design. Something they still had addressed when they released the Bicentennial ball set in 1976 which had the star motif on it. Also screened on, and when you run your finger over the 13 stars on the solids very perceptible same with the star cut out on the stripes.
 
rexus31 said:
Both are very different in design.
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And Hyatt was at their peak with the Bicentennial, both the Romanique sets and the other three or four phenolic sets they produced. But sadly their fall was just around the corner...

We need Ken Burns to make a documentary on the history of pool balls. From ivory to Ivorylite to Phenolic, it spans both the best and worst of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries...
 
Benelli said:
And Hyatt was at their peak with the Bicentennial, both the Romanique sets and the other three or four phenolic sets they produced. But sadly their fall was just around the corner...

We need Ken Burns to make a documentary on the history of pool balls. From ivory to Ivorylite to Phenolic, it spans both the best and worst of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries...
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Absolutely. I'm still on the hunt for a nice set of Romaniques. Here are my Hyatt Bicentennials. There's not a mark or blemish on them.

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rexus31 said:
Nice. I’ve had the chance to buy a couple loose sets, but the box is a must for me.
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Balls go in trays and the boxes go into other boxes that get stacked on boxes in a storeroom.

I have become less interested in boxes and more interested in sets since I started this hobby. Now having said that I may, upon my deathbed, look back and have a Rosebud moment for all the boxes I never got but for now YOLO!!!!
 
I looked into the history of the dart design (used on modern Centennials but not on the original Brunswick Centennials). My notes are in this string that started from a question about a set of Ivorylene "dart" balls:

Old Balls

Would anyone know if these old balls have any value? They are in good condition, no chips or cracks.
forums.azbilliards.com

The first mention I could find:

Screenshot 2023-08-20 115720.png


Note also that Brunswick made sets of 2 5/16 pool balls in their premium "Empire" design. Said to be used in the championships.
 
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