Klondike Pool table

Earlier this year I was contacted by Gary Wasielewski (who writes at Crokinole Chronicles) about a Klondike Pool table he had picked up.  He agreed to let me document it on the blog.

Playfield details

Near the center-top of the playfield is what looks to be a divot to place a King ball for a game like cockamaroo.  But instead it looks like a button, and it makes it hard to balance a ball there.  Perhaps it's like that to make the 2nd ball precariously balanced, and thus easier to dislodge?

The trap hole mechanism

The counter weight returns the plug back to the hole once dropped

rotated photo, showing the trough beneath the trap holes

Lower playfield arches

 Front trough, cigar holders, and cue ball cup/rest

 Balls

he suspects that only the speckled balls are original.

 Cues

Legs

 

From Gary, on the provenance: 

"The last owner, who I never met but have tried to get the auction house to have contact me, shared that it was in a plantation house on site of Monocacy in 1864 and then at a hotel in Atlantic City (the Royal Palace) which was around in the late 1890s/1900s. The hotel is written in chalk at the bottom.

I do not know if Klondike Pool tables like this were sold as far back as 1864, but the evidence of the Royal Palace Hotel in Atlantic City does lineup with the known timeline for Klondike pool.

Bonus photo, a different Klondike Pool table that was sold earlier in 2024 in Quakertown PA USA.

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For my readers in the USA:  

This blog stands in solidarity with trans people in the USA, and my work here only continues as an active site of protest.  The fabricated moral panic against LGBTQ people offers severe state violence in the form of eradicating gay/bi/queer people, but especially trans people, from public life. Talk to the trans people in your life about what they are going through.  Find ways to assist the trans community in the face of this genocidal moral panic that threatens the existence of millions, and is being implemented out of malice, ignorance, and fear.

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 Recommended reading: Shroud Waving

bar billiards

I am moving all of my bar billiards notes into a single post.  (It previously had bounced around as a sub-category in other posts.)

Bar Billiards

 

I had moved Bar Billiards with the Pigeon Hole tables at first, since the template for it arrived around the same time as Pigeon Hole tables were popular.  Now it's here on its own.  You can see a prior post with a good video on bar billiards.

It apparently came to the UK via Belgium (as Russian Billiards?) circa 1930s, but that's a highly suspect history considering the precursor tables with the same layout and features existed in 1880, and then the trough that returns balls to the front appeared with Klondike Pool.

The game had playfield holes and troughs let the balls roll to the front, making it perfect for a bar where surrounding space was limited.  The player always shoots from the front.

It is a 20th century game so I won't be spending much time on it, but I would like to see if there is evidence to better trace the 19th century tables to the present-day bar billiards machines.

It is also lays forth the inspiration for the "totalizer", a key innovation in the development of pinball in 1933.

Are we going to just rest on the story that "bar billiards came from Belgium around 1930" when this existed in the USA in 1872?

Jenny Lind table in the 1872 J. M. Brunswick catalog

bagatelle notes: pin bagatelles / French bagatelle / Klondike Pool

Here we have the innovation that truly scratches the gambler's itch:  the entire table is slanted, ensuring the balls always roll down towards the player, and introduces a strong element of chance.

These designs would be imitated by the toy bagatelles of the 1800s, which would eventually include a spring plunger in the 2nd half of the 19th century. (citations needed!)

Previous entries in this series include bagatelle notes, and carombolette notes.

These slanted tables tend to also get called bagatelle interchangeably with the flat billiard-style ones, which is why I like say "pin bagatelle" as the overarching category.   AFAIK there was never any steadfast naming convention, which mirrors billiards whole convoluted history, rife with variants of design and rules.

According to Bueschel's Encyclopedia of Pinball, it was "cockamaroo" that added the left channel and the scoring pockets along the bottom, but it's quite rare to find tables that don't have them.  

CHEVROT & LE BON

F 101, Avenue Montaigne Paris Très belle table de Billard chinois Placage de palissandre vernis, métal et bronze doré France, Paris, fin du XXème siècle Nous y joignons une queue de billard et des billes en bois (restaurations à la partie recevant les billes) Haut.: 103 cm - Larg.: 86 cm - Prof.: 105 cm Inventaire de la collection n°686 Modèle similaire à celui livré en 1862 pour le Salon des Cartes au château de Compiègne. Un autre exemplaire est conservé au château de Fontainebleau. Ce jeux à l'origine de salon sera par la suite exploité par les forains Very beautiful Chinese Billiards table - Varnished rosewood veneer, gold metal and bronze - Billiard queues and balls included (restoration for recipient) - H: 40" W: 33" D: 22" DM
cornettedesaintcyr

Oh will you look at that ornamental gate with the ball and drawbridge!  Incredibly cute.  Also a rather expensive table.