This is a Charles Dawson 823 Break Cue. It has an ebony butt hand-spliced onto an ash shaft.
This cue commemorates the world's record break made by Charles Dawson on 6 December 1907 in a match played against J Chapman at Thurston's Hall in Leicester Square, London.
Charles Dawson was presented with a silver cup as a memento of the break. The cup was given to the Billiard Professional's Association in February 1923 to establish a snooker championship for their members.
Charles Dawson's 823 break was made under the Rimington-Wilson Rules, not those of the Billiard Association, so it was never officially recognised as a world's record.
The Rimington-Wilson Rules were developed by Rimington-Wilson in 1899. These rules for billiards banned the "miss" and simplified the penalties for foul strokes.
The Rimington-Wilson Rules were endorsed by Burroughes & Watts and used in their professional tournaments from 1906 onwards. The Rules were largely adopted by the Billiards Control Club when it was formed in 1909.
Rimington-Wilson was something of a visionary because the rules he developed are substantially the rules of the game of billiards as played today.
To view a contemporary report of Charles Dawson's 823 break, which appeared in The New World of Billiards magazine on 11 December 1907, click here:
