French Billiards under the Revolution and Now

The pictures here furnish an interesting contrast, covering, as they do, exactly a century-and-a-quarter of French billiard history.

The title of the print above, reproduced by kind permission of Messrs. Burroughes & Watts, Ltd., from a colour engraving one hundred and twenty-five years old in their possession, is: "Les Incroyables au Billard."

"Les Incroyables" was a name given under The Directory in 1795, during the French Revolution, to certain foppish young men who were affected alike in dress, manners, and speech, in the latter of which they dropped their "r's," thus making "incroyable" incoyable, etc. It may be supposed that they saved their heads during the Revolution by fraternizing with the rougher "citizens," somewhat in the manner shown in the picture.

An interesting point about this old print is that it seems to indicate that a kind of cross between a pocket table and a bagatelle table was used in France a hundred years ago, since which time the table for cannons only has become the rule. The cups representing pockets are plainly to be seen, especially in the larger coloured engraving, and on the wall are shown rules (then translated "raigle". instead of the modern "regle") relating both to cannons ("carambolle," now "carambolage") and, presumably, to pool. Larousse gives "poule" as "jeu, assaut, au billard" (game, attack, at billiards), and pool is essentially a game of attack.

Below is a reproduction from an engraving which depicts French billiards of to-day, and a professional match is shown in progress.

[From a Painting by Leon Fauret]

The balls are imperfectly shown, but it is a long draw-back that the player is attempting, the second white ball being away towards the bottom of the table on his right, where he hopes by this "coup" to assemble all three.

French public billiards is not by any means the carefully-supervised ceremonial that it is in this country. The spectators express their opinions and emotions freely, and English players who have gone to France in by-gone years to play the cannon game there have been more than a little startled to hear bookmakers shouting their names to the company and asking who would back Mr... and Mr...

Dawson and Peall had this experience once, and later Dawson played French billiards at Soho Square against a leading French exponent of the cannon game.