If it weren’t for an unassuming and weathered metal sign tacked up near the side entrance of the Port Industrial Center—a downtrodden, three-story brick factory building looming over the Hudson River in Albany, N.Y.—no one would know that in a second-floor woodworking shop, two art majors–turned–restoration experts are breathing new life into antique billiard tables. A 3,000-square-foot work space that once housed B.T. Babbitt Co.—a prominent, mid-19th century soap manufacturer—now is home to Bankshot Antiques (www.bankshotantiques.com) and is defined by nearly 70 billiard tables in varying conditions, all from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Donald Bartholomay and Dave Grunenwald are at the helm of the two-man operation, and they recognize that their educational backgrounds as a painter and a sculptor, respectively, give them a leg up on their competition.

"Because such a big part of antique tables is aesthetics, one of the things that give us an advantage is our art training," says Bartholomay. "People don’t go out and spend 20, 30, 40, 50 thousand dollars on a pool table because they want to play pool. Obviously, they’re going to play pool, but they also want something beautiful to look at." Such beauty is not created easily, which is why Bartholomay and Grunenwald are content to complete a small number of tables each year. "We don’t try to be the cheapest; we try to be the best," Bartholomay says. "We always pick the more hand-done, time-involved processes. All of those details add up in the end to something that has a glow to it."

During the 50-year period that constituted billiards’ golden age—from 1870 to 1920—about 200 companies were manufacturing tables, though it was Brunswick-Balke-Collender in New York that dominated the market and produced about 75 percent of them. Those tables, which people today associate with the Brunswick Corp., are sought-after commodities due to their recognizable name and design. However, Bankshot Antiques’ inventory contains a fairly high percentage of non-Brunswick tables, which are equally appealing to serious enthusiasts for their rarity and unique character.

Most tables have a story, and those stories add an element of personality and charm to the pieces, even if such accounts cannot be documented. For example, Bartholomay cites two "brilliant novelty" designs by Brunswick-Balke-Collender, crafted during the High Victorian era, which he and Grunenwald recently delivered. One was said to have had a prominent place inside the Everleigh sisters’ brothel in Chicago—a notorious establishment of ill repute in the early 1900s. The other was said to have accessorized a New Mexico saloon in the late 19th century and represented Bankshot’s most challenging restoration to date. "It was a four- or five-year odyssey before it ended up in somebody’s house in Chicago," Bartholomay recalls of the length of time that the project demanded.

Despite the fact that some modern-day companies are building tables to reflect vintage styles, Bartholomay finds it difficult to justify such a purchase, especially if a customer is enamored with a table’s antique aesthetic. "I don’t think there’s much of a substitute for the antique tables," he says. "New tables that try to be antiques … I’ve never seen any that I thought were particularly successful or as nice as the antiques. And if they do start to approach that, they’re as expensive, or more expensive, than the actual antiques."

Even considering the dozens of antique tables that are stacked all around them awaiting restorations, Bartholomay and Grunenwald are content to store them until someone commissions that specific restoration. They’re not interested in flipping a table once they acquire it, nor are they motivated to have a showroom full of restored tables ready for sale. Because of that, there are tables, like a cast-iron Brunswick Monarch—one of only a few that Bartholomay believes still exist—that the company has had for years. However, he admits that he’s content to hold on to a table like that, which would cost about $100,000 to restore. "We’re not in any big hurry to sell it," he says. "It’s this big, gray, dirty, metal thing and you need to know [what it is] to appreciate it. We need to wait until the [right] person finds us and realizes the rarity and the value of it."

A GAME EVOLVING
A billiard table means many things to many people. For some, it conjures up the thought of smoke-filled pool halls and the acrylic crack of the cue ball as it connects on a break. For others, it represents the height of regal living. But for those with a penchant for history and a fascination with bygone eras, billiards represents a game that has withstood the test of time, played on tables that reflected the tastes of each new generation while adhering to the game’s traditional specifications and rules of play.

If the game of billiards enjoyed a status reserved for royalty and the elite during the late 19th century, it was during the roaring ’20s when the game grew in popularity and reached the masses. By the early 1920s, approximately 2,000 pool halls had taken root in Manhattan and the surrounding New York City boroughs. It was during that explosion of the game’s popularity that Manhattan’s Blatt Billiards (www.blattbilliards.com) was established. In 1920, three years before Sam Blatt, the patriarch of the company, founded his enterprise, the game of nine-ball made its debut. The demand for another variation of the game indicated just how popular billiards had become, to the point that Ralph Greenleaf, a multiple World Pocket Billiards champion, was earning $2,000 a week demonstrating trick shots on the vaudeville circuit.

Today, the family-owned company—now in its fourth generation—produces restored and custom-made billiard tables to meet any specifications. Though the company asserts that its inventory is the largest in the business, it also declares that, should a customer request a table that the company does not already have, it will take the necessary steps to find it. When asked to survey the current trends in the market, owner Ron Blatt says that dark mahoganies and carved tables are in, but he also acknowledges that such demand "can change in a heartbeat."

While Blatt’s restoration projects start at $22,500, some rare and intricate tables can demand 10 times that amount. One such table is a Brunswick creation from the late 19th century that Blatt says is the earliest table known to offer an automatic ball return. "It is hand carved out of solid teak, which is really hard to carve," he says of the table, which costs $250,000. "Every inch is covered with carvings like you’d see in a church. It’s probably the most solid construction that I’ve ever seen on a table."

THE CRAFTSMAN'S TOUCH
The roaring ’20s may have made the game of billiards popular across all social classes, but it was Paul Newman’s memorable character Fast Eddie Felson in the 1961 film The Hustler that solidified the game as a societal mainstay. "Paul Newman in The Hustler just changed everything," says Howard Hatch, the proprietor of Hatch Billiards (www.hatchbilliards.com) in Brunswick, Maine. "People finished watching that movie and just wanted to go and play pool. He was the coolest guy in the U.S. It made it the cool thing to do and filled up pool halls all over the place."

But what eventually lifted the resurgence beyond Fast Eddie was a need to fill up more square footage. "You take the cultural awareness and the advent of really big houses and it takes on a life of its own," Hatch says. "The homeowner started to envision entertainment—the game room, the pool table … it just fit."

Ironically, Hatch’s shop is based in a town that shares its name with the most recognizable and successful billiard table manufacturer in the history of the game. Aside from sharing four rails and six pockets, however, there’s not much that links the Hatch and classic Brunswick styles. "The bases of my pool tables are sculpture to me," he says. "It’s functional sculpture, so I’m interested in the form, as well as the surface decoration."

Hatch’s tables all start at around $20,000 and require about six weeks to build. Unlike other manufacturers making highly ornate pieces, Hatch subscribes to the philosophy that less is more. Rounded edges and gradual curves characterize many of his designs, and aside from his affinity for high-contrasting inlays, Hatch lets the natural grains and patterns of the wood accent each table. "I’m supplying the niche for the person who already is furnishing his house with high-end furnishings with high-end materials—the finish, the actual woods, and the design," he says. "You can go out and buy a nice pool table that plays well for $4,000, but the person who’s going to spend $20,000 or more, they’re thinking that this is going to make their house look better."

Hatch was an avid pool player when he was younger, so he brings to his business a solid knowledge about the game and how a well-made table should play and feel. He has been designing and crafting furniture for the past 35 years, and each of his tables is an ode to simplicity and versatility. "Whether it’s a pool table or any piece of furniture, I’d want it to be comfortable in a wide variety of house styles," he says of his work, adding that most of his customers are attracted to his tables for their connection to classic furniture styles and their solid craftsmanship. "My clients aren’t necessarily pool players," he explains. "They know how to play the game, but they’re primarily interested in the look of the table and the fact that it can last 100 years and it can be an heirloom."

A NEW SPIN
"We’re pretty much a metal place," says Justin Sirotin, the cofounder of Mars Made (www.mars-made.com), a Rhode Island–based manufacturer of modern game room tables and accessories. The company works exclusively with aluminum, steel, and concrete, which is why its latest billiard table, known as the model C1895, is such a departure. That is, until you get a closer look at it.

When painted a dark, natural-looking wood color, the table could easily pass for mahogany, except that based on such a design, no wooden billiard table could exist when carved to those proportions. Considering that the table is only 6 inches thick, and that a 1-inch-thick piece of slate used as the playing surface for a standard billiard table weighs about 750 pounds, a wooden table with those dimensions would be crushed the minute that piece of slate was lowered onto it. So the Mars Made design team looked at the curved wooden furniture from the Victorian era and, using computer-aided equipment, machined the table out of aluminum to reflect the design cues that were prominent more than a century ago. "It was more stepping back from the table and looking at it from afar," Sirotin says, "and building the silhouette from something of that time period."

The table, which starts at $34,125 for an 8-foot model and $36,225 for a 9-foot model, appears lightweight, but at close to 1,500 pounds, it’s deceptively heavy. Other surprises include carbon fiber pockets, a finish that’s cool to the touch, and a vibrant luster to the surfaces—all characteristics that are the by-product of using metals over wood. "We’re using modern materials and modern processes to create classic products with new forms," Sirotin says. "Our basic strategy has been and will continue to be exploring new ways to design old things; to put a new spin on old games."