ANTIQUE BILLIARD TABLE RESTORATION

According to Webster, the word restore means to bring back to a former state. At Boston Billiards we strive to do just that. Our goal with any billiard table restoration project is to salvage as much of the original as we possibly can.

It is very rare that you find a pool table that is 100 years old or so that is in such pristine original condition that it could go on our showroom floor with just a cleaning. In most cases there are repairs to be done. How these repairs are done and the materials used will have a great impact on the value of your table.

Here is an example of a restoration that we did recently. This was a table manufactured by the J. E. Came Company in the 1860's.

When we bought the table it was very dark and dirty. It was difficult to see the wonderful details on the table.

After inspecting it we determined that at some time many years ago someone decided to liven this billiard table up a bit. They brushed several coats of shellac over the dirt and grime, trapping it under the new finish.

In most cases we would have stripped the wood down to its natural state and applied a time appropriate finish. The problem was that if we stripped the table we would lose all of the hand painted details.

Our goal became to salvage the painted details. It involved many, many painstaking days of slowly removing each layer of shellac without damaging the paint under it. We were about 98% successful in saving the paint. We then applied two coats of varnish to protect it.