About Us
"I wonder why a man should prefer a good billiard-table to a poor one..."
- Mark Twain
Despite years of play for fun and profit, master artisan Howard Hatch estimates his lifetime winnings at the pool table to be no more than $200. Billiards have yielded him a profit of a different sort - the discovery of a life's work.
During his college years at The School for American Craftsmen at Rochester Institute of Technology, Howard was a dedicated student of furniture design - and Straight Pool. These passions intersected in 1996 when a client requested a custom billiards table. The project was a revelation. Almost without realizing it, Howard had studied the design, materials and technique of billiards tables for as long as he’d studied the game. As he surveyed that first finished table, Howard made a career-defining decision - to focus his design and craftsmanship on creating custom pool tables. And like many artists inspired to elaborate on one form, this pursuit has elevated the billiards table from the utilitarian to the extraordinary.
It has been said that pride is a sin, unless you are a craftsman; and Howard takes great pride in the original and elegant custom furniture he has created for over thirty years. His line of billiards tables stands at the center of his work - as they would in any well-appointed room - and are complemented by accomplished turns at lighting, seating, cabinets and accents. His craft is a continuation of the American Studio Furniture Movement: singular, custom-made and high-end pieces produced in small studios beginning in the 1940s. Howard also draws inspiration from the beautiful, futuristic forms Art Deco craftsmen stylized from simple geometric shapes, and from the organic abstractions of 20th century sculpture. The Hatch Studio line refines and riffs upon these influences, while the unique design for each custom pool table takes shape in the rich currents that run between a client’s commission and an artist’s vision. Hatch Studio billiard tables are bold and contemporary, engineered as much as designed, statement pieces for lovers of art and the modern aesthetic.
Howard's workshop employs traditional techniques and embraces today’s technology. Visitors to Hatch Studio's idyllic 19th century mill location on the Androscoggin River in Brunswick, Maine, are as likely to find Howard hand cutting Mother of Pearl inlay with a jeweler's saw as tracing off intricate blueprints for the laser. The raw materials - choice hardwoods, slates, fabrics and inlays - are meticulously sourced and exquisitely crafted to showcase their best traits. (Read more about Howard's palette here.) Clients may choose their billiards table from the signature Hatch Studio line, or bring a wish list for a custom piece. Hatch Studio selects the very best materials and designs to one end - distinctive, luxury handmade pool tables that our customers will treasure for generations.
Mark Twain, a fierce and crabby lover of billiards, once asked why a player would choose a good table over a poor one. Our answer to Twain would be - it is the art of the thing that matters most. To order luxury pool tables or billiard furnishings from our line or commission an original design from Hatch Studio, contact us today.