Restoring a table and room from 1770

What!?! No way!

A piece of the first perimeter lighting system makes way for discovery of an 18th century pool table.

I wonder what the best shot made on that table was? Were the cue sticks all wooden tipped, or did it transcend the era of leather tipped cues?

How cool! Thanks for sharing.
 
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Wow, they really spared no expense to restore that room and table. I wonder about what they were saying about chalk for the cue sticks though, I didn't think chalk became a thing until at least a century later.
 
Badpenguin said:
Wow, they really spared no expense to restore that room and table. I wonder about what they were saying about chalk for the cue sticks though, I didn't think chalk became a thing until at least a century later.
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I wasn't there, but reportedly players discovered about this time that the points of the cues would work better if they rubbed them into the ceiling plaster. Tips were still about 30 years away. The chalk holder was needed because the ceiling in that room is inconveniently high.
 
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Rusty in Montana said:
Very interesting post Bob thank you for sharing this with us !

I wonder what ever happened to the balls that went with the table ?
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If the balls were ivory, they would have wandered off for other purposes or cracked in a hundred years or so and then been reused. I wonder how long the table was used after the French revolution.
 
Rusty in Montana said:
I wonder if the balls could be made from mud ? Since I've heard that reference at times over the year's ?
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I think the alternative to ivory at the time was wood. "Mud" balls or "clay" balls I think were mostly Bakelite with minerals added, like this:

1780426005204.png
 
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