Cuaba said:
It was a standard Brunswick model that Rambow designed. It was the first cue to have a joint above the wrap for weighting & balancing. The bell ferrule was for a larger tip without a thicker shaft taper.
If it is all original, it might be the nicest one available. I've never seen one that nice.
The Billiard Encyclopedia tells all about it and the Blue Book gives values.
Cuaba,
You have bought up some good points that I want to build on. All the information had been written 15 years ago in both the Encyclopedia and the Blue Books. If people would obtain the copies they could easily be more educated about these cues without much trouble. I have the good fortune of knowing people who have been great educator's and have shown me things that I would not have the opportunity to know. Now to go over a few points...
- 1923 first hub cue shown in Brunsick catalog
- 1925 Patent to Herman Rambow NOT for hub cue, not for 2 piece brass jointed cue, but for a WEIGHT system. In the encyclopedia on page 271 of the second printing you can see the drawing. It shows that by putting a threaded rod of varying lengths you can adjust the weight of a cue in approximately the A joint location. It's clear that Rambow knew that butt heavy cues were not desirable and he was an innovator before his time.
The ivory "ring" was used IMHO on the HUB cue to even out the design. But ivory rings are shown in Brunswick designs in earlier catalogs. Example, the fishing pole cue no 220 from the 1915 catalog has an ivory ring, the no. 210 has a hexagonal cut ivory ring, (talk about excessive) and so on.
Decals should only be used for approximate dating. This cue has a white/gold decal, which one would believe is for a cue from before 1923. However there are a few very plausible explanations for this. The cue was left over from that time period and converted into a HUB cue. The person who did the actual machining (not necessarily Rambow) had a white gold decal sitting in his machinist box and put it on the cue. I could think of a few more but will leave it at that. Conversely this could be the first hub cue if you wanted to speculate to the label. Also remember that Brunswick had cues made in a few locations, as good as Rambow was, he hadn't patented space/light bending so the chances of him making every cue of that time period are a bit light.
Brunswick decals (most of them) are being reproduced now for restorations. I will bet that 25% of them will be incorrect.
The screw in the lower area sometimes in shown in the butt or in the above piece. This can be because of the way it's turned to disassemble, might have been glued later, there is no exact reason. It's very random.
We have every Brunswick catalog at our disposal, Mr. Rubino and Vic Stein, spent a plethora of time and their own money to make sure his information was as accurate as possible. If you want to learn about these cues there are extensive chapters in the first two printings of the Billiards Encyclopedia.
All this being said, it's a gorgeous cue and in great shape. The case is period and adds quite a bit to the history of the cue.
JV
