Sir Walter Raleigh Esquire Bulldog Pipe, made by Lane. This pipe measures approximately 5 1/2″ Long x 1 1/2″ High with a bowl diameter of 1 1/8″ and a maximum bowl width of 1 5/8″.

Order this Pipe Now - Click Here!

At the 2009 Richmond Pipe Show, the International Charatan Collectors Society (ICCS) held a private meeting for members only and PipesMagazine.com was kindly invited to attend.

If you don’t know about Charatan Pipes, they actually have an interesting and unique story. The founder of ICCS, Bob Swanson invited us to attend and this is what he told us.

The ICCS is the International Charatan Collectors Society. We started the society in 2006 in Chicago, and it was actually founded by myself - it was my idea, my baby. And it was to try to bring Charatan collectors together from around the world because we just seemed so segmented, and wondered where all the collectors and Charatan pipes were. So, we got together at the original meeting - as I said, this was in Chicago. It was Charatan heaven for the Charatan collectors there. The first meeting had 33 people in it. The pipes were absolutely awesome, unbelievable. The tables were covered. We saw pipes that Charatan collectors were just drooling over. There were originally 28 charter members and five of those were from England and the club has grown to 38 at present.

There was a lot of controversy originally when we started it because we wanted to keep the club to people who own Charatans. We wanted people who were collectors and already into Charatans. So we had a rule which we started which is called the "Five Pipe Rule".

In order to get in you have to have 5 Charatan pipes. It created a lot of controversy in the pipe world and among pipe smokers, and there were pros and cons on it. Mr. Burla who runs the Chicago show was not real happy with it, but I didn’t back down and we ended up doing it and it became something the Chicago Club and Frank Burla himself finally thought it was a great thing. And it kept it a little bit … I don’t know, in my words maybe pure. So, that’s how the International Charatan Collectors Society started.

PipesMagazine: So, in the beginning Frank Burla from the Chicago Club was not in agreement with the Five Pipe Rule?

Bob: The Five Pipe Rule, yeah.

PipesMagazine: But now he’s embraced it?

Bob: He’s really embraced it and you know Frank was very turned on and very supportive. I don’t want to say he wasn’t supportive. He was very supportive it was just the Five Pipe Rule. And actually the whole Chicago Club just loved the idea and it generated and spurred more clubs. And a Dunhill Club was started. Trying to think what we called it. Originally it was like a, you know a seminar as something to further Charatans and all of a sudden Dunhill wanted to do it and Camoy wanted to do it.

So it really got a lot of activity and brought a lot of people into the Chicago show. And you know they loved what was going on and it’s, it’s been very good for all of us and we’ve marked out a lot of charter members, and you know a lot of names that everybody knows that belong; including Fred Hannah and Rich Esserman. Most of the meetings we have judgings and we get a lot of people that enter pipes and we give out awards for the top Charatans and so forth.

PipesMagazine: How are they judged?

Bob: They are judged by an independent panel, usually three to four judges and people you know that are known in the industry. And for example, the first year we had Bobby Eichorn who isn’t here tonight, but Bobby’s probably one of the, the biggest collectors in the world of Charatans. I mean he has fabulous Charatans - everything that you can think of and they are all top of the line stuff. And you know Marty … I, I think Marty was a judge one time. I know Fred Hannah was. I know Rich Esserman was, and they just, we go around and we judged on best of the grades of the Charatans and then we had a total collection award also.

PipesMagazine: Give me a brief rundown on Charatans in general, for the uninitiated.

Bob: Charatan and Dunhill for years - I’m an old man okay - were always major competitors. And Charatan was not run by businessmen. They were pipe makers. And they didn’t run the business like Dunhill did. Dunhill were businessmen. Dunhill ran, and still to this day makes frazing machine pipes. You know they’re not really handmade pipes; they’re frazing machines which is just a copy machine if you don’t know what that means. Charatan always made free hand pipes. So, the big difference is Charatan has pipes that are free hand and made with the grain. They look for grain. Where Dunhill looked to make a, a standard shape - and I’m not being demeaning Dunhill. I’m just saying they made a standard shape and they covered up the grain with stain and the grain didn’t mean much. It might have been blasted or whatever, but Charatan was always known for its grain. And there were battles for over 20 - 30 years.

The person with the biggest effect on Charatans was Herman Lane, who started Lane Limited out of Atlanta. He bought the rights to distributorship of Charatan in America. So, one of the biggest distinctions in Charatans in America versus Europe is that when you see a Lane Limited stamp - which is a pound L in a circle - a lot of people don’t know what that means, but that means that it was a pipe that was made by Charatan in England and distributed to Herman Lane and Herman Lane put his Lane stamp on it.

There is a Lane Era and this is a big thing in Charatans. If it doesn’t have a Lane stamp on it, it probably is a European made, a Charatan European made and European distributed Charatan. Okay. And this takes you back to the inability of Charatan to really be a good business manager with it. It doesn’t necessarily always mean that because sometimes Charatan forgot to stamp the Lane Limited stamp on it and so forth. It’s really very hard to date Charatans versus it’s very easy to date Dunhills because Dunhills always have date stamps on them and serial numbers that you can date them by where Charatan isn’t that way. So you have to really know what you’re doing in dating a Charatan.

PipesMagazine: How long have Charatans been around?

Bob: Charatans have been around since the ’40s.

PipesMagazine: Now are they still made now?

Bob: No. Charatan went of business in the early ’80s.

Dunhill won the battle. When Dunhill bought them out they took all of the Charatans that were still in existence and X’d them all out. They stamped them all out and sold them for whatever they could get for them. So, you’re talking a pipe that might have sold for a grand sold for 50 bucks.

PipesMagazine: Wow.

Bob: And, but it was all stamped out by Dunhill.

PipesMagazine: When, when you say stamped out what…?

Bob: All the stamping on the pipe - you know the Charatan make and all this stuff.

PipesMagazine: They got kind of obliterated.

Bob: Obliterated, yeah. They were I mean evil people. I don’t mean Dunhill, I mean both of them. They were just vicious foes you know. They just hated each other. And you know there’s, I mean I could go on and on and on about this, but I mean that’s basically what happened …

And Charatan’s claim to fame was that they were England’s oldest pipe maker. So, they say that they went back to. I think it’s, 1863, but don’t hold me to that. But basically in America we’re talking like I said in the 1940s. And Herman Lane bought the rights to Charatan in 1955. And there’s a lot of questions on that. I have a book that he wrote about himself, that says 1955 he bought it. So, that’s, that’s a hard number.

PipesMagazine.com thanks Bob Swanson for inviting us to the International Charatan Collectors Society meeting at the 2009 Richmond Pipe Show, and for telling us the fascinating and interesting story of Charatan Pipes.

We add another photo shoot to our pipe smoking women with the return of Valerie.

Valerie is looking cool in her jeans and leather jacket while she smokes her Butz Choquin Pipe.

Valerie Smokes a Pipe - CLICK HERE FOR FULL GALLERY

G.L. Pease is the brand of many pipe smokers favorite blends; such as Maltese Falcon, Key Largo, Westminster and the newest, Chelsea Morning. The man behind the blends, Greg Pease talked to us about his new 2010 calendar which includes stunning photography of pipes.

The calendar is named, "In Celebration of Briar". It falls into the collector’s item category as the production is limited and quality is high. We had a brief conversation with Greg about his new calendar.

PipesMagazine.com: What inspired the original calendar and how was it distributed?

Greg Pease: My love of pipes inspired it! I’ve been collecting for almost 30 years, and have always had a real passion for the things. I’ve been a photographer since I was about 8, and the convergence of these two aspects of my life was inevitable. I do all the product shots for G.L. Pease, and one day, after photographing "yet another tin of tobacco," I began to explore doing some B&W art shots of pipes. I was hooked.

The first calendar came about in 2006. I’d wanted to do this for a while, but production and publishing costs for something with such a limited audience made conventional printing impractical. One day, a dear friend of mine who really supported the idea, sent me a link to Lulu Press, "gently" suggesting that it would be a good way to do this. ( Basically, "Just get off your butt and do it, Greg. You have no excuse now.") It was already October, so I hustled to assemble the twelve interior photos, shoot and design the cover, and get the images off to Lulu to go to press. That was the beginning.

Lulu is great. They handle production and order fulfillment using a digital Print-on-Demand process. The cost is higher than doing it offset, but the quantities required for traditional printing to be practical are huge. With PoD, there’s no worry about having to recycle hundreds of leftover calendars. And, with them doing the fulfillment, I don’t have to have boxes of the things all over the house.

PipesMagazine.com: Are these all your personally owned pipes in the photographs?

Greg: The first two years, all the pipes were from my collection. For 2009 and 2010, though, I opened it up a bit, and shot some pieces on-loan from a couple of pipe makers whose work I really like. In some cases, the pipes had already been sold, but their new owners were happy to cooperate with the project. I don’t know what I’ll do for 2011, yet, but will probably continue doing more pieces that are not in my own collection.

PipesMagazine.com: Are autographed versions available?

Greg: Not really. Since Lulu does the printing and shipping, there’s no way for me to get my hands on the things before they’re winging their way to the customer. However, I’m always happy to sign them at shows and so on.

PipesMagazine.com: When is your birthday so we can mark it on your calendar?

19th April. Send presents.

You can see the pictures from the calendar here: http://www.glpease.com/Calendar/

You can purchase it here: Lulu.com
 

Samuel Gawith Bracken Flake may have ruined me for all other pipe tobaccos. You better make sure you are sitting down when you smoke this one! You can even catch a buzz just from the tin aroma. The tin aroma reminds me of Jose Cuervo Reserva de la Familia Tequila. It is a rich sipping Extra-Añejo tequila aged in oak barrels. The tequila has a full, mellow flavor that combines floral, agave, vanilla and Cognac-like flavors. You can take this not only as a recommendation for the tequila, but for SG Bracken Flake too. Opening a tin of Bracken Flake and taking a whiff gives me the same experience as opening a bottle of Cuervo Reserva de la Familia and doing the same. Bracken Flake smells like it has this fine liquor in it.

If you are a pipe smoker or pipe collector and you missed the Richmond Pipe Show this year, we feel bad for you. The good news is that you can see what you missed here.

The show is put on by the Conclave of Richmond Pipe Smokers club or C.O.R.P.S. Bob Tate and I attended the show October 2 - 4, 2009 to work, reporting on it here for our audience. This is the best definition of work I ever experienced. It was such a great weekend being surrounded by hundreds of people that love collecting pipes, love smoking pipes and love talking about pipes and doing all three at the same time non-stop all weekend long. It makes you wish there was a pipe show every weekend.

Bjarne Nielsen, the owner and the founder of Bjarne Pipes, passed away in February 2008. The company was founded in 1973 and became Denmark’s largest pipe manufacturer of 100% hand made pipes. Bjarne Nielsen’s pipes are recognized as a great value. His goal was to make high quality Danish pipes at a reasonable price. Bjarne pipes are hand made of the highest quality Grecian and Calabrian plateau briar. Get one of his excellent pipes while you still can.

This is a Viking pipe, made by Bjarne. This pipe measures approximately 5 1/4″ Long x 1 3/4″ High with a bowl diameter of 1 1/4″ and a maximum bowl width of 1 1/2″.

See a Listing of Bjarne Pipes for Sale Here

Here are the photos from the Richmond Pipe Show 2009.

Click on the images for a larger version and captions.

[Show as slideshow]

 

In the earlier Pipe Tools article we talked about some quite important tools for the pipe smoker and a few that not everyone is going to be interested in using. This time though we’re going to be talking about a few tools and accessories that just about every pipe smoker is going to need in his kit.

Last time we started out with pipe cleaners so let’s start this session with cleaning brushes for pipe stems and shanks. Unlike pipe cleaners these brushes are not absorbent and are reusable although they’re so cheap you won’t need to worry too much if you have to throw one away.

John C. Loring - September 8, 1944 - October 7, 2009

It is with deep sadness and great regret that we must report the passing of John C. Loring. Many people in the pipe collecting world knew him well for his encyclopedic knowledge of Dunhill Pipes and other tobacciana. Word came to PipesMagazine.com in an email from Les Sechler, another well-known and established pipe collector.

Les’ email stated:

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Subsequent to my inquiry I have heard from a source close to John that he went into the hospital for a chronic leg infection and the problem could not be controlled, resulting in his passing. There will be a memorial service held tonight in Chicago.

When shall such a one come again? One by one the old guard, the ones who made our hobby what it is today, are leaving us. Guess we might as well admit to ourselves that we are the last real generation of tobacco lovers, or at least we are here in the US. John left a body of work behind that will endure as the most reliable source for information on old Dunhill pipes. He will be missed.

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John Loring’s website can be found at: http://www.loringpage.com/

His Death Notice Reads:

John C. Loring
Loring, John C., Esq. left us too soon the evening of October 7th at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. John was born on September 8, 1944 in Madison, WI to Louise Loring and the late Herbert Loring. He will be missed every moment by his beautiful wife of 40 years, Elizabeth, his daughter Katherine Meredith and his son, Michael Douglas, he will also be missed by his younger brother Bruce, his soon to be son-in-law, Adam, and so many special friends. Our dear John left us with the gift of love, courage, strength and the lesson that the glass is always half full. He will be remembered for his beautiful mind, his unique sense of humor, his devotion to the University of Wisconsin Badgers football team and most importantly, his enormous heart. John’s memory may be made in a donation to the Northwestern Memorial Foundation to honor the nursing staff of the Medical Intensive Care Unit who cared so compassionately for him and his family- 676 N. St. Clair Street, Chicago, IL 60611. A private memorial will take place at a later time and will be announced to friends and family. Arrangements by LAKESHORE JEWISH FUNERAL, GREGORY J. LINDEMAN, DIRECTOR ( 773 ) 435-1558.

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I met John for the first and only time at the "Chicago Pipe Show" last May. I attended the seminar he did along with Rich Esserman.

Rich had this to say, "John passed away on October 8th, 2009. He was a pretty private person so we do not have exact details on his passing. About 3 weeks ago John was admitted in the hospital for a leg infection. There was no public funeral.

John was well known for his Dunhill dating guide and his many articles in the Ephemeris. John had developed great knowledge about old Dunhill pipes from the teens, ’20’s and ’30’s and related tobaccos. John had a terrific collection of rare Dunhills including many in his favorite shape, the Dunhill LC (large curve).

I talked to John a month ago or so and he sounded fine. His last pipe was a rare Dunhill quaint shape that I never heard of and prior to that was 1924 Dunhill mag with cracked shank - John just loved these damaged pieces which he would refurbish and smoke.

Frankly, it has not quite set in that he is no longer with us. I enjoyed working him on many of his articles on old Dunhills and ‘debating’ with him on various topics and in particular, when we used to met in Chicagoland." - Rich Esserman

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Here are pictures of John Loring taken by the author during his seminar on Dunhill Pipes in Chicago, May 2009. May he rest in peace.