"History
of female billiards".
"Floor
billiards, the ancestor of table billiards, appears - at least in written
records - in the 14th century (although it is probably older).
Both
men and women are already playing the game at the time:
According
to the "Journal de Paris" (1426), a young woman called Margot
surpasses the most skilful billiard players [1].
The
tapestry below ("Le jeu de Tiquet", Bruges workshop, 16th
century) is based on a 15th-century engraving that supports the idea
that women enjoy this game as much as men.
.[i]
The
same theme is found almost identically on this other tapestry (early
17th century) by painter Laurent GUYOT (1575-1644), who based himself
on the 16th-century cartoon of the previous tapestry:
[ii][..]
All male and female players used a "cross".
Then the billiard game moved from the ground to a "table".
Women continued to use a cross, which enabled them to play in a standing
or slightly lowered position as their ankles were supposed not to be
seen according to the Decency Code of the time: "Le Noble Jeu de
Billard" (1643) , painting by Abraham BOSSE (1602-1676).
.[iii]
Women
abandoned the cross for a straight cue towards the end of the 18th century,
beginning of the 19th , which men had already done 50 years earlier.
Here are some well-known women who played billiards in their leisure
time:
- Marie Stuart (1542-1587) and Marie-Antoinette of Austria (1755-1793),
queens of France, who played every day.
- Catherine the Great (1729-1796), Empress of Russia, and Queen Victoria
of the United Kingdom (1819-1901), also avid players.
- Novelist Madame de Staël (1766-1817) and Empress Marie-Louise
of Austria (1791-1847), both brilliant billiard players, below, from
left to right.
..and....
[iv]
Marie-Louise d'Autriche (1791-1847), who is
shown playing a game of billiards with her husband Napoleon I and
Marshal Ney in a Clinedinst illustration:
Here
are a few documents showing men and women playing separately or together
over time:
- "Le jeu du billard" (1680 ca) by Nicolas Arnoult, a French
engraver (1650-1722). The players are Louis XIV and the Duchess of
Burgundy.
.[v]
-
Ladies and gentlemen playing billiards" (1756), drawn by
Johann Esaias Nilson (1721-1788).
[vi]
Note
that women still use a cross, while men (who may play, even lying
down) already use a cue.
-
"The Johannes Remy Family" (1770 ca), by Januarius Zick
(1730-1797), a German painter:
.
[vii]
-
"Jeu de billard" (1807), painted by Louis Léopold
Boilly (1761-1845), in which a woman plays with a billiard cue that
has no tip yet.
.
[viii]
As
billiards becomes more and more popular, cafés provided with
billiard tables gradually open. Mostly frequented by men, their owners
generally resent the presence of women. They even sometimes dare to
forbid women to use cues already fitted with a tip, arguing that they
might tear the billiard cloth!
Female
billiards remains popular with artists although the development of
billiards slows down significantly:
- Two paintings (1869) by French Charles-Edouard Boutibonne (1816-1897),
born in Hungary:
(a) "Le jeu de billard".
...[ix]
(A
beautiful way of playing behind the back, position referred to as
"à la hussarde").
(b)
"Ladies playing billiards".
..[x]
(A
game of billiards between women using billiard cues)
From 1880 to 1890, female billiards is also found in:
a) advertisements by the J. M. Brunswick and
Balke Company in the USA.
..[xi]
b)
the "Games and Sports" trading card series. "Billiards":
below, card no. 165.
.
A
man and a woman playing and a female referee.
c)
"Jeu de Billard - Femme" A.S.O.
'ART NOUVEAU' postcard showing a female billiard
player and accessories of the time.
d)
the book "BILLIARDS" by William
BROADFOOT (1896) : see two of its illustrations
by Lucien DAVIS (1860 - 1941) below.
......
Starting
shot..........................................................
Difficult shot.
According
to documents in the Chicago Billiard Museum, the billiard player
known as 'Professor Kaarlus' is Belgian Charles Van Doren. A pupil
of French master Albert Garnier for some time, he joins the Maurice
Daly Billiard Academy in New York in 1889. Highly appreciated, he
becomes a billiard instructor and the creator of many fancy shots.
The talent of his daughter 'May Kaarlus', whose official first name
is 'Mary',
..
is so great that Daly believes in 1915 that she would have surpassed
most of the professionals if she had pursued her career.
Women begin to participate
in billiard competitions:
The
first Women's Open French Championship (1932)
is won by Yasmine d'Ouezzan (1913-1997).
Born a Moroccon princess, she is the first
French woman to record the run of 100 (1933)
[2].
.
Women's billiards begins to flourish in the United States in the
early 1900s with other modes of play such as '14.1 continuous' and
'9-ball' pocket billiards.
The
first great female star of American billiards is American Ruth McGinnis
(1910-1974), below at the age of 14,
[xii]
later
called 'The Queen of Billiards' and recognised as the women's world
champion from 1932 to 1940. For more details, see [3].
She
is followed by another American, Jean Balukas (1959 - ), below at
the age of 7 in an exhibition at New York's Grand Central Terminal.
Considered one of the greatest pocket billiards players of all time,
she is inducted into the WPBA Hall of Fame in June 2002.
[xii]
Japanese
player Masako Katsura (1913-1995) achieves an incredible run of
10,000 caroms in an exhibition [3] in Japan, before moving to the
USA to get married in 1951.
This
female star, nicknamed "Katsy" and
sometimes called the "First Lady of Billiards", puts in
a fine performance in a world championship (1952) against renowned
male players, see below,
..[xiii]..
She
takes part in numerous exhibitions, invited by Willie Hoppe, Welcher
Cochran and her teacher Kinrey Matsuyama.
[xii]
Advertisement
for an exhibition in California (1953).
Masako
Katsura is inducted into the WPBA Hall of Fame in 1976, as is Ruth
Mc Ginnis (posthumously).
BYRNE
Robert's book [4] shows the author watching Masako Katsura running
out a 100-point carom game, at Palace Billiards in San Francisco
in 1976.
The
first French women's free-game billiard championship (1932) is organized
almost 50 years earlier.
Since then, women have increasingly
taken up billiards, and their performances have often caught up
with those of many male champions:
-
In 2022, Therese KLOMPENHOUWER, a Dutch woman, wins the Women's
3-Cushion World Championship for the 4th time, with an overall average
of 1.39 and a best run of 8!
[xiv]
-
Magali DECLUNDER (France) wins the European Championship Free Game
Ladies for the 12th time, with an overall average of 76.5 and a
best run of 150!
"A
Bit of Humour"
What
is commonly referred to as "La Belle Epoque" (1880-1914)
is marked by unbridled insouciance and optimism. The upper and petty
bourgeoisie, as well as the working class, break free and slum it,
each according to his or her social status. In this "relaxed"
atmosphere, Billiards, for its ambience and decor, Women who are often
regarded as frivolous, and the (rather bourgeois) society of the time,
particularly liberated, induce numerous painters and cartoonists to
win fame in humorous drawings and caricatures, often with double-meaning
captions, yielding to the fashion of the beginning of the century,
inaugurating a sometimes saucy style that is still in today. Here
are a few examples:
-
A drawing from "Fantaisies Parisiennes" (circa 1885) by
A. GREVIN (1827-1892), painter and illustrator, creator of Paris'
Musée Grévin (= Wax museum):
"Si
vous le voulez bien, mon cousin, nous appellerons cela un manche..."
(= If you agree, my cousin, we'll call this a handle...)
-
A drawing by JEANNIOT, famous painter and illustrator (1848-1934),
from the 1904 newspaper "Le Rire":
"Le
coup Fin" (= the Fine shot)
-
A drawing from the 1927 newspaper "Le Rire", by Raoul VION,
a very famous illustrator, humorist and caricaturist (1872-1939):
- "
La Rouge touche "
(= the Red touches)
-
A suggestive drawing from the magazine "Le Rire", August
1899, entitled "JEU DE BILLARD", by Georges MEUNIER, painter,
engraver, illustrator and poster artist (1869-1942):
"Three
women sitting on the grass"
-
Two drawings (among many others) taken from "La Vie Parisienne",
October 1888, under the heading "Villégiatures - Au Billard"
by Jacques ONFROY DE BREVILLE, known by the pen name JOB (1858-1931),
another well-known artist, caricaturist and illustrator, who features
the billiard lifestyle of the time:
1).
Pontife et bel esprit (= Pontificating and witty pundit).
"Ne
joue jamais, mais passe pour très fort et tourne autour
du billard en conseillant les joueurs".
(= "Never play, but do as if you are very strong and walk
around the pool table giving advice").
2).
Le sexe fort.
-
A page from the November 1906 issue of "Le Frou-Frou" magazine:
a drawing by Jack ABEILLE (known as Abeillé) (1873-1939), who
is also a painter, a designer, a poster artist and an illustrator
and was very popular in the "Roaring Twenties" and is still
so today.
-
A very rare embroidered postcard from the late 19th and early 20th
centuries.
-
"Le Billard Mondain", an extract from the newspaper "Le
Sourire", founded in 1899 by Maurice MERY and Alphonse ALLAIS.
Drawing by Paul IRIBE (1883 - 1935), a fashion illustrator, a decorator
and a poster artist, considered to be one of the precursors of "Art
Deco".
-
A drawing from the magazine "Le Rire", April 1904, featuring
Louis XIV: "Le jeu de Billard": "Nom d'un chien comme
elle sait rassembler ses billes" (= By golly, she knows how to
put her
"things" together)...: drawing by
Henri AVELOT (1873 - 1935), who is also a painter and a caricaturist.
(
For Bililards: humour & caricatures
)
[1]TROFFAES
Georges, Le billard et l'histoire. Chronique des temps passés.
Ed. Laguide, Paris, France, 1974.
[2]
HEURTEBISE André, 3 billes aux reflets tricolores. Ed. Féd.
Française, Thionville, France, 1984.
[3]
SHAMOS Michaël, Le billard et le billard américain. Ed.
Minerva, Paris, France, 1992.
[4]
BYRNE
Robert, Byrne's Treasury of Trick Shots in Pool and Billiards. Ed.
Skyhorse Publishing. Inc., New York, United States, 2012.
Credit:
[i]
Copyright
: Musée d'art et d'histoire de Saint-Lô, Pierre-Yves
Le Meur.
[ii]
Cas Juffermans.
[iii]
Copyright
: Musée des Beaux-arts de Rennes - Jean-manuel Salingue.
[iv]
Wikimedia Commons.
[v]
Nicolas Arnoult, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
[vi] National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
[vii]
Januarius Zick, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
[viii]
WahooArt.com.
[ix]
Postcard.
[x]
Charles Edouard Boutibonne (1816 -1897), Public domain, via Wikimedia
Commons.
[xi]
J.M. Brunswick and Balke Company, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
[xii]
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
[xiii]
J.h. Gallegos.
[xiv]
Credit: Carambol, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
This
page was written in co-operation with Jean-Luc Chiche.
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