The Queen billiard snooker pool table

This unique black walnut antique  billiard or snooker  table and matching free standing Billiards cabinet by Orme and Sons Ltd were commissioned for Queen Victoria's Jubilee Exhibition in 1887. 

Every side is beautifully carved in high relief with references to the industrial growth and cultural variety encompassed by the fifty years of her reign, which coincided with the Golden Age of the British Empire. 

The cushion friezes are decorated with ribbons of quotations from Shakespeare, Tennyson, Scott, and Byron entwined with over fifty species of wild flowers and native British birds. 

Beneath this are two long and six short panels depicting numerous countries through allegory, flora, fauna and industry. 

Between the panels, above each leg, are portrait figures of William of Normandy, Henry I, Henry II, John, Henry III, Edward I, Edward II, Edward III, Edward IV, Elizabeth of York, James I and Charles I. 

The imposing cabinet resembles a door within a frame, surmounted by a broken pediment enclosing a lion. The door is carved with seven panels, the upper four show Victoria's coats of arms at important stages in her reign, the central horizontal section has a profile of Victoria and Albert beside Windsor Castle and the lower section depicts the royal residences of Holyrood and Caernavon. 

The second section has slides which expose a game with stars and coloured counters(Life Pool) and also rotates to form a scoreboard. The ormolu door furniture comprises a handle and two push plates intricately worked with arabesques and lion masks.