It's nice to see some interest in these vintage cues from members of this forum.
I sure wish there were one single resource that we could all access for information relating to the history of the Brunswick four veneer cues, the Titlist, Hoppe Professional, number 26 1/2, and the much lesser known Carom King. Fittingly, one of the only on-line consolidated sources for this history that I have seen was provided by a member of this forum, runscott. You can view his work here:
http://www.oldsplice.homestead.com/
I wanted to contribute a few tid bits in the interest of sharing accurate information:
1) To my knowledge, the 26.5 was the first four veneer cue design produced by Brunswick. I have wondered exactly when it was intruduced, and thanks to Chris Tate I was able to see that the 26.5 was available as early as 1908, how much earlier, I don't know.
(26.5 pictured in 1908 BBC catalog)
2) The progression of BBC four veneer cues was the following:
< 1908
no. 26.5, <1938
Carom King, approx 1941
Titlist & Hoppe Professional. Tough to see, but this is a
1938 catalog offering the Carom King in the upper right hand corner. Here is a picture of the label on
my own Carom King cue.
3) The "wedge," as we call it, was actually called a name plate, and could be used for carving one's name or other information. I had read some place that it was only offered between certain years in the 20s, but the link to the 1908 catalog proves that wrong, as you can see it was offered at that time as well.
Here is a picture of a few of mine.
4) One of the nicest 26.5s that I have seen can be purchased
here for just $2,500 about half way down the page.
5) The Willie Hoppe Professional cue was a higher quality two piece version of the Titlist one piece house cue, and was typically priced at more than twice the price.
6) Copies of many vintage catalogs can be purchased
here for further research.
Ok, now I'm just rambling... Guess I'm just excited that more than three others on this forum are also interested in this history. Feel to browse just some of my collection at the link in my signature. The rack in my avatar is a very rare original 1890s BBC 12x12, and is home to most of my nicest pieces.