G. Various European cues.

a. Belgian.

Adorjan, Basile, Brauers, Duqué, eSBee, Gabriels, Glineur, Horemans, Tremerie, Van de Kerckhove, Van Laere, Verheyden, Verhoeven, Wilden.

Adorjan (Brussels).

The patented "La Royale" cues of variable weight (see Section A) were manufactured by the Hungarian
J. Adorjan (1856-1918), first in Belgium and then in France. Here are some with butt about 56 cm and shaft 83 cm (the last two have already been described in Sections A and J).

The next model is different.

Its ebony carved butt

is longer (72 cm) and its maple shaft shorter (67cm). This model is the same as the one shown, with the bolt set for modifying its butt end and shaft weights, in an early 1900's Toulet's catalog.

The joints of the above 4 'La Royale' are made of metal.
Note: to my knowledge there are also models with a 1) wooden joint 2) short butt and 2-piece shaft.

Basile (Brussels).

Some cues from the 1960's with metal joints and made of wengé.

Shafts of this wood are sometimes used to play artistic billiards or 'billard-golf'.
See also cue 4 of the group shown in Subdivision Horemans.

Brauers (Brussels).

The Brauers cues have typical inlays that are red or green. Butts 1 to 4 below are signed BRAUERS BREV. The next ones were probably made by the same manufacturer. An interior brass pipe and a long collar stengthen the joints of 'bottle' shaped butts 3 and 4. Butt No. 3 dates from before 1940, 4 has an inlaid cork wrap, 5 is made of rare woods (Macassar ebony and maple burl) and 6 is of variable weight. All cues are with wood joints.

The centre of gravity of the next Brauers can be moved (see Section L 2 b Manufacturing).

Brauers has also created a yielding cue (see Section P. Special. 3).

Duqué.

eSBee (Stany Buyle).

Professional cues (1980s).

Gabriels.

Butt (from before 1940),

Glineur (Brussels).

'3-piece' cue from the sixties with a Belgian Glineur's decal. This cue has a lot of Frank Paradise's (U.S.A.) characteristics, i.e. a brass joint screw located in the butt, metal (nickel silver?) and plastic decorative rings, plastic mother-of-pearl and a wrap made of black nylon thread.

Horemans (Brussels).

It should be noted that this firm did not manufacture billiard cues. In fact, it sold those made by other firms - a. o. Hiolle, which it represented in Belgium, - and put its signature and/or its decal on such cues.
See cues 1, 2 and 3 below.

Butt 2 is probably Hiolle and the same is true for the 4-point one below, which dates from the 50's.

The next one is in 3 parts and is very heavy (600 g., for 'billard-golf' in 1970-80). The German manufacturer Boetzel of butt 3 might have produced it.

Finally:

a) an old 4-point cue with a long wooden screw,

bearing the rare handwritten signature of Ed. Horemans

also appearing in the preface of his book Le Billard published in 1965.

b) a similar cue, without splice,

with a Hiolle decal and on the opposite side a Horemans engraved mark.

Note:

Edouard HOREMANS was born near Antwerp in 1889. He began playing billiards in 1905 and won his first Belgian Amateur Championship in 1910. As a professional, he was Champion of Europe in 1919 and World Champion in 1925-26 and 1928 -29. His picture (left) dates from that time. He married the sister of Edouard Van de Kerckhove (right), who was world record holder at the Fantaisie Classique (Artistic Billiards) in 1938 and manufacturer of billiard tables. Covered by the Brunswick Company, he spent several years of his life in the United States doing exhibitions and finally returned to Belgium. He is the author of billiard books published between 1919 and 1965.

..............

Tremerie (Ghent).

Four models, the first with a 'normal' joint (brass screw No. 6 of Section L 1 b Screws)

and the others with inverse joints (see Section L 1 b Screws),

The decal of the last one is more simple than that of the previous ones .

Van de Kerckhove (Brussels).

Advertisement of 1938

Below, two '4-prong' cues dating from before 1940. The first one has a decal and a long wood screw

and the second one, stamped with 'Van de Kerckhove' but probably made by Brunswick, has a '4-prong' shaft with an aluminium screw threading directly into the wood of the butt.

Note that Van de Kerckhove and Horemans have been partners (see below).

Advertisement of the 1960s

Van Laere (Brussels).

The most important of the Belgian firms. See Section F.

Verheyden (Rumst).

One of the few cues built by Alphonse Verheyden, renowned repairman.

Verhoeven (Malle).

A 'Mélis' with metal rings at the butt ends and a black wood screw, known for a long time in Belgium and still currently built under the name of Paramount. See also cue 5 of the group shown in Subdivision Horemans.

Wilden (Brussels).

Below is a picture of Professor Henry Wilden and his Billiard Company, located 14, rue du Cirque (see Belgian newspaper “Le Billard”, Nr 1, 1902).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a cue with a square ivory inlay, manufactured by that firm.

It has been identified by the Belgian well-known billiard player Léo Corin and offered me by a friend of mine, Claude Mahaux.

b. French.

Brunswick, Caro, Carrier & Laumé, Castor, Grivaud, Hénin Aîné, Hiolle, Laprévote, Seguin, St. Martin-Palisson.

Photos below display cues of the same cuemaker brought together. Some models have already been shown separately. For more details, see Section L.

Brunswick (Paris).

See Section E.

Caro (Paris). One of the successors of Chéreau's firm founded in Paris in 1816.

Here are a few signed cues.

The first one is made of rosewood and maple, inlaid with mother-of-pearl

and carved with Art Déco motifs from the 1930's.

It is signed CARO on one of the butt end inlays and G. CARO Fabricant - PARIS between two rosewood points. The collar is made of 'against the grain' ivory;

........... .......

The diameters of the butt end, the collar and the ferrule of the shaft are 35.0, 20.5 and 11.5 mm, respectively.

The other cues,


'bottle' shaped,

'4-point',

gilt '4-point',

'3-piece', and


'4-piece'

are more recent, bear the signature shown in Section L 2. h and look like Hiolle cues in Section D.
Notice that there is also a '4-piece' cue similar to Hiolle No.48 in this section.

Carrier & Laumé (Paris).

An old signed cue covered with an embedded rubber wrap.

Castor.

Three '2-piece' cues provided with a "Castor" decal (see Section L 2 h) of which the maker is probably Brunswick or Proust (see Section A.6):

1
rosewood and maple.

2
wenge and ash.

3

'bottle' shaped butt in rosewood carved and inlaid with mother-of-pearl (shaft in ash).

Grivaud (Lyon).

A 'Grivaud International Lyon' (see Section L 2 h) brand '2-piece' carved and inlaid cue.

Hénin-Aîné (Paris).

See Section E.

Hiolle (Paris).

The most important of the French firms (see Section D).

Laprévote (Paris).

Five La Technique cues (see Section A), made of various woods and inlaid with mother-of-pearl,

the last two ones (rare) being carved.

Seguin (Paris).

A signed 'bottle' shaped cue covered with an embedded rubber wrap, dating from before 1940. Its butt end has a red ring probably made of ambrolithe.

St. Martin-Palisson (Paris).

The patented and signed St. Martin cue (for more details, see Section A).

c. German.

Boetzel, Bour, Dorfelder, Finck, Schröder & Kartzke, Wolsing.

Boetzel (Berlin).

Supposed to be the maker of some cues (see Horemans, Wolsing and Section I).

Bour (Köln).................
.............................................;Excerpt from an early 1900s advertisement

Hiolle's cues distributed or sold by Bour.

Dorfelder (Mainz)...........
............................................................Excerpt from an early 1900s advertisement

Two 'L'Universelle' (see Section A).

A rare Mace-like cue with seven consecutive '4-point' splices (see Section J).

A rare "Cue/Cane' (see Section J).

Finck.

This company, founded in Berlin in 1839,

soon became one of the most important in the world.

It produced a lot of top-quality models.

Some of them, built for VIPs or as trophies,

were magnificent one-of-a-kind items.

.;Excerpt from a postcard of 1919

Here are very old models identified using Finck catalogues appearing in 'The Billiard Encyclopedia' written by Stein and Rubino in 1996:

i) from top to bottom, Nos. 113 (with added rectangular nameplate), 281, 250 and 89 from the 1880s

Nos. 113 and 250 have white criss-cross and longitudinal rod inlays typical of Finck and their joint has an inside brass ring. Nos.113 and 89 are signed by their owners and the butt of No. 250 is 'two-piece'.

ii) a variant of the '4-point' model No. 342, with a carved grip and a monogrammed large ivory medallion.

iii) the probably even older No. 88,

in 2 parts with sturdy ends fitted together without collar with a long wood joint screw (see below),

iv) a model

with two rounded 'Vignaux' style splices surrounded by 4 coloured veneers, side-by-side and nested.

This very complicated assemblage, seen in one of the catalogues above, and the white inlays suggest Finck manufacturing.

Schröder & Kartzke (Dresden), one of the most important companies at the time.

.......................................................................................... Heading of a letter written about 1929.

The very old cue No. 267 'La Reform' (see Section A).

The hand carved cue Nr 281 of the late 1800s or the early 1900s, with a double monogrammed ivory medallion.

Wolsing (Kevelaer).

Boetzel might have produced this about 50 years old '4-piece' cue.

d. Portuguese.

Sampaio.

This old company (founded in 1880) was known for the quality of its cues and the fine materials used (rosewood, mother-of-pearl [MOP], ivory...). Here are two of its ' 2-piece' models: the 'Mark VII' (*), richly adorned with MOP inlays (the butt ends were restored),

and the 'Premier', extensively carved and inlaid with MOP.

The latter is more than 50 years old. It is signed 'Sampaio' and 'Made in Portugal'. Its shaft, signed 'Sampaio' only, has a narrow brass joint screw (6 mm in diameter). Note that its central motif

also appears on the Finck cue No.134 dating from the 1880s (see 'The Billiard Encyclopedia' 1996, page 275) and recent unsigned cues.

Sampaio started to export to the States in the 1960s. Below, the 'Lisbon'

and the 'Kent'

models from that period, with a brass joint screw located in the butt (see Section L 1 b)

(*) This cue with a wooden joint was also sold in France by Brunswick and Proust before 1960.

e. Dutch.

Olympia and Wilhelmina.

Olympia.

The cues bearing this well-known name were manufactured in the Netherlands and in Belgium. They were sold in these countries and even in the United States and are sometimes signed by Dutch cuemaker Van Eeken. Below are five Olympias with different decorations and decals.

The Van den Broeck brothers made the one with an incomplete blue decal

in the 1950-1960s. The other ones are more recent.

Wilhelmina.

Advertisement of 1938

A cue dating from about 1930, covered with an embedded cork wrap,

and a more recent 'Cees van Oosterhout' .

f. Italian.

Longoni, Doublel.

Longoni (well-know firm founded in 1945).

Below are:

a) two Longoni 'Professional' cues, a '2-piece' one

and a '3-piece' one.

b) two '2-piece' 'Zenith' (trademark created in 1976) cues. The first one is signed Francis Connesson

and the second one is covered with a red textile thread 'grip'.

 

Doublel (Turin).

This firm, founded a few decades ago, makes billiard cues with new materials (kevlar, carbon fiber…).

Here is a model signed 'Doublel Team Gustavo Zito, Campione del mondo 1994'.

The shaft is made of carbon fiber and the butt contains a weight and equilibrium point regulator. The weight might be varied between 600 and 660 g. It is 140 cm long. The aluminum extension measures 10 cm and weighs 85 g. The multi-layer leather tip is 12.5 mm in diameter.
This kind of cue is mainly used by 5-pins players.

g. Danish.

Harald Fihl (renowned cue maker, see page 109 of 'The Billiard Encyclopedia' written by Stein and Rubino in 1996).

More than 25-year- old cue provided with maker's decal (see Section L 2 h).

Jens Christian Petersen made around 5000 top-quality cues from about 1930 to 1969. Most of them are stamped near the joint with his initials JCP on the butt and with a same number on both butt and shaft.
Here is a 3-piece cue with number 286.

Volmer Brønnum worked for Jens Christian Petersen and took over from him for some time.
The 3-piece cue shown below was made about 40 years ago.

An interior brass pipe strengthens its joint.

Many thanks to Danish billiards collector Jørgen Peder Jørgensen for his information about these three cue makers he knew.

h. British.

A mace from the early 1800s (see Section Q).

An old and magnificently decorated cue (see Section M)

 

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