{"product_id":"coffee-table-book-of-billiards-hardcover","title":"Coffee Table Book of: Billiards (Hardcover)","description":"\u003cp\u003eCoffee Table Book of: Billiards is a large format book of billiards, printed edge to edge in colour, one picture to a page and the widest carried across two: the table and its cloth, cues and chalk, the rack of balls, quiet halls and rooms standing empty at every hour, the kit being made and cared for, the old ways of the game, and a few players seen far off in plain dark clothing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe kit is laid out plain: a white cue ball on green cloth, a red and a black, fifteen reds packed in a wooden triangle, the six colours in a row, three carom balls on blue cloth, a cube of blue chalk with its worn hollow, a leather tip on its brass ferrule, a cue taken apart at its joint, a long case, a rest, a thin glove, a table brush, an iron, a level and a box of balls.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe making follows blanks of ash and maple, a shaft turned on the lathe, dark splices set into a pale butt, a roll of new cloth, slate slabs laid flat, a strip of cushion rubber and old worn tips in a dish. The past runs from a wooden ball and an iron hoop on a dewy lawn and an old mace with a broad flat foot, to ivory balls in a lined box, a wire of scoring beads, a leather pocket net, a carved leg, an oil lamp with a green glass shade and an old cue with a worn tip.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen the places, empty at every hour and in every season: an old hall in frost at first light, a country house billiard room in autumn rain, an upstairs hall on a snowy night, a barn loft at golden hour, a seaside hall at noon, a club room in fog, a vaulted cellar, a mountain lodge, an orangery in spring rain, a panelled hall in a storm, a mill floor, a boathouse loft at sunrise, a desert town at sunset and a vast dark hall under one lit lamp, and a few small players far off, chalking, racking the reds, practising alone and brushing the cloth at first light.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShort notes run through the book, on the rules and how the games are played, the tables, cues and balls and how they are made, and the history of the sport: cue chalk is mostly fine grit rather than true chalk, and it helps the tip grip the ball, the black is worth seven points, the most of any ball in snooker, carom billiards has no pockets: a point is scored when the cue ball strikes both other balls, and the six colours score from two for the yellow up to seven for the black.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePrinted in full colour on heavy 150gsm coated paper at 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 inches), as a hardcover with the art printed on the case.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cedar Pine Editions","offers":[{"title":"Case Bound - PPC","offer_id":68136579858736,"sku":"9671456001760","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0262\/2357\/5085\/files\/9671456001760.jpg?v=1792510385","url":"https:\/\/www.thegreatbritishbookshop.co.uk\/products\/coffee-table-book-of-billiards-hardcover","provider":"The Great British Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}