Thank you all for the words of encouragement, ladies and gentlemen, very much appreciated indeed.

Very interesting suggestion, OmgGlutten, I'll certainly explore that possibility further. Many thanks and best wishes.

Do you have all of these displayed somewhere? Pics? How many sets do you have?

Hello, TXD.

Alas, my home is not large enough. It would be something of a dream of mine to have an elegant, mahogany panelled billiard room with recessed cabinets in which to display my collection. Maybe next year!

I have forty plus sets and counting.

Best wishes.

Ruper,

According to my contact at Aramith they are not the manufacturer of your missing ball. Any ideas on what other company it could have been? Or if you know for certain it was, any links that i could use for proof while water boarding the aramith son of a ***** who lied to me.

Hello again, Alobar.

I'm not certain that Aramith were the manufacturers of my missing ball by any means, sir. I must confess that such an assumption was based on:

1. My own expertise on pool balls of that era, their lustre, number fonts, colours etc.

2. Second hand information from another collector.

Both the above are far from infallible, dear chap, and I am certainly indebted to you (and your contact) for putting me straight. If not Aramith, my next best guesses would be Raschig (subsequently taken over by Aramith) or Hyatt (ceased trading in the late 1970s). The other manufacturers of the time were unable to match this quality.

I won't be offended if you say no, sir, but are the contact details of your buddy at Aramith something you would be prepared to share with me privately? I ask because I am currently working on a custom ball set project with a business partner and we'll soon be tendering the work out for pricing. We've budgeted circa $20,000 for 200 sets so it will be a decent order.

Thank you so much for taking the time and trouble to try and help out, it's very much appreciated indeed.

Best wishes.

Message received and replied, sir. Much appreciated.

Wait, Alobar actually has a contact at Aramith?

I think he met him in jail.

I have no idea what’s going on in this thread, what’s fake, what’s real? And I don’t care. I love it. Love everything about it. A+ thread. Good luck to all the collectors.

Definitely leaning towards Albany Billiard Ball Company/Hyatt.

Couldn't find the balls in question but they seem to have had the star on the 8 before, as well as the heart expanding. Seems like the set you have would be a logical step for their design.

Thank you for those kind words, Slighted, always much appreciated and glad you're enjoying the thread.

Great shout, Eskimo! I have been quite astonished by such a positive response to my appeal on the poker forum and, frankly, rather humbled that so many folks are doing their best to help me. Where I once thought it was something of a lost cause, I now have real hope that the missing ball might one day be found.

Sincere thanks, everyone.

Ruperman,

This is one of the very very few threads where the OP actually listens to the responses instead of disagreeing with everyone except the 1 in 100 who say what they want to hear, call everyone else a hater and then leave the thread to die.

Thank you, Tomdemaine.

I'd like to think I'm an easy going type of fellow but as a newcomer to the forum, and one seeking help no less, I wouldn't dream of being anything other than friendly and courteous. The response has been amazing, sir, and I'm deeply grateful.

Best wishes.

I'm taken back to when I used to watch 9 Ball on ESPN with the constant refrain of "Aramith Belgian Billiard Balls" Nice thread.

Ruperman,

Can you show us your camera setup for the pictures? How do you space the balls so perfectly?

I assume the board has little indentations to rest the balls in.

There is an arrangement of holes on the board so he can presumably place a ring with a couple of little feet in each pair of holes and the ball rests on that.

Hello, everyone.

You're all correct. After some very careful measurements I drilled seventy-two small holes in a wooden board, allowing sets of three different sizes to be positioned so the gaps between them always remained the same. The idea was to ensure that the photographs maintained a certain continuity regardless of the balls' varying diameters (2 inch, 2 1/16th inch or 2 1/4 inch).

Actually taking the pictures was equally basic, I'm afraid. The board was placed on the floor and my cellphone rested on an edge of the kitchen table to keep it steady. Hardly Henri Cartier-Bresson, but it did the job!

Best wishes.