Walnut Benedict

 

Shown here is one of our previously restored Benedicts. It is a walnut table, rather restrained for a Benedict, but beautiful in style and proportion.

 

You will see several Benedicts throughout our site and we are fortunate to have a few in our unrestored inventory.

Burl Walnut and Rosewood Babcock

 

The Utica-Syracuse area of upstate New York was a hotbed of billiard manufacturing in the latter part of the 19th century. Benedict and Babcock are the most celebrated, with C. L Castle being a smaller spin-off company.

 

As with other regional groups of the small manufacturers, workers moved from one company to another, taking practices with them. This gives rise to regional characteristics such as the" Boston Leg" and black rail diamonds.

In Syracuse there is another distinctive leg style which is shown here. These companies probably used the same foundry as Benedict and Babcock tables often have the same, unusual, round flange pocket irons. You can also see from the above photos that Benedict and Babcock shared a refined aesthetic.

 

Because of these similarities, we have probably misidentified Babcock tables as Benedicts and vice-versa.

Though Benedict claimed in their adverts to be the largest manufacturer between New York and Montreal, research shows that Babcock was actually slightly larger and had more longevity.

 

At this writing, we have an eight foot Babcock like the model shown above – photos 6 through 6d in "the Attic."