From The Old-World to New With Love
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Kevin Godbee - May 31, 2012
- 10 min read
Jerry L. Eischeid
There are some things that are just in ones blood. Take beer for example. In the long-gone days of my youth, I belonged to an abstemious tea-totaling church. On my very own honeymoon My Newlywed Majesty thought we should try the (free and ice-cold) beer at the end of touring a major east-coast brewery. It was a hot, humid, Virginia day in June and I wrestled with the idea. Having never had it before, I absolutely intrinsically knew that if I tried it, I would like it. I mean look at my surname! You Google that with a "de" for Deutschland and you get a tiny village of the exact same name just outside of Köln (Cologne), Germany in the region of Neunkirchen-Seelscheid! Beer is almost our middle name! Even when My Majesty and I were courting, my dad referred to her as Die Lorelei, the Rhine River golden-haired siren nymphet whose singing lured many unwary river-sailors their death on the rocks far below her perch. Anyway about the beer, I tried it, love it, and imbibe far too much of it to this day to sustain my manly-Bavarian style belly.
And then there are the pipes. My first memory of a tobacco-smoking pipe was the occasional exposition of my great-great-great-Grandfather "K’s" pipe. To ease the word-burden from here on, let me refer to this particular ancestor of mine as Pappy K. Pappy K’s pipe eventually was passed down to my mother and now resides with me. It is one of the oldest of very precious few heirlooms in our family, dating, we think, from the mid-19th century. It’s a traditional German porcelain pipe variously referred to as a porcelain wine pipe, Tyrolean pipe, Black Forest pipe, alpine folk pipe, and several other variations on those themes. Starting at the tobacco burning end of Pappy K’s pipe, there are two glazed porcelain sections, a traditionally wind-capped bowl, and what I’ve heard more than one writer refer to as the "chamber-pot" section, or "wine bowl" as some nomenclaturists posit. I’ve actually heard lore that some Germans floated a little wine in the pot to both flavor and gentle their smoke. The two porcelain sections are fired with a deep loden-green glaze highlighted with thin delicate gold lines.
The body of the bowl has a cream-bone off-white background upon which is emblazoned a mighty Berlin scene of the ever grand Brandenburger Tor, or Brandenburg Gates, which wraps its way around a panoramic full half of the entire outer circumference of the bowl. At the back of the bowl, fashioned directly from the porcelain, is a tiny "handle" that gives the wind-capped bowl the visage of a tiny beer stein. I have noticed that pipes of this type very frequently have sort of safety-keepers of loden-green cord curled through these tiny handles, spiraling around pipe-shank perhaps, and then secured at the upper end of the shank often with two ornamental wooden beads tufted with chamois or badger hair. Both porcelain sections are wedded both to each other and to the shank with cork-lined junctions, not unlike those of a clarinet or other woodwind musical instrument. The first section of shank from the porcelain is made out of cherry-wood, an actual twig of the same and still wearing its bark. This is joined by a node of whatever the 1850ish equivalent of vulcanite was to the next half of the shank, which is a tightly woven tube of black cording that is actually even a bit flexible. This terminates in another node into which a threaded removable bit is installed. The bit itself is cylindrical and not flattened out in the manner of many modern pipes and has two stops, one obviously for teeth to clench and the other a perfect distance from those to brace the lips of the lucky smoker. And there you have a description of Pappy K’s joyously well-worn grand old Teutonic badge of fraternal tobacco enjoyment.
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A little over a year ago, after a lay off from pipe smoking of around 30 years, I decided to take another stab at it. And in so doing, decided that I should indulge my heritage and find a pipe to smoke as close to Pappy K’s as possible, his being too fragile, revered, and precious to risk. So after very little effort indeed, I was the proud owner of a brand new, eminently smoke-able as the ad said, old-world style German porcelain wine pipe! I had two things against me, first I was nearly a total neophyte as to method and technique of pipe-smoking in general, and secondly, in my humble opinion now, a traditional German folk pipe is NOT the best place to start. They are in some respects stealthy demonic monsters. They are hard to light, hard to keep going, hard to maintain, very easy to break, even easier upon which to burn yourself on hot porcelain in the manner of grabbing the wrong end of a soldering iron, and so on. Not only that, but at the beginning I could only get a mildly decent burn going if the darn thing was fully loaded… i.e. oh, about six ounces of tobacco per bowl! Not cost-efficient in the pleasure department these days. So I set the new porcelain Krautie aside, read the e-zines, the blogs, the books, and watched the tubes… and learned the basics on some very nice, reasonable, respectable, and actually quite satisfactory briar pipes. I also learned, much to My Majesty’s dismay but loving tolerance, about the thrill of PAD and TAD. But the ancient Germanic gravitations still beckoned.
Eventually a vision began to brew in my head about the possibility and potentials of having my very own custom pipe made for my very self according to my own exact tastes and bizarre ideas. I put together a brief proposal to send to several pipe-makers that went something like this: "I am very partial to something configured using the old German porcelain "wine pipe" as inspiration. Full-bentish. ca 13" total length. But made with modern materials, briar, and exotic contrasting woods. I love the 2-section bottoms of GWPs… and can imagine them realized in briar. I really like both free-handy/plateau briar bowls. I’ve seen some antler pieces worked in beautifully and like that. And finally I am totally a 9mm charcoal filter man and must have that feature built in. Is this something that might interest you? What might this cost? Etc."
In addition to the others, I had the good fortune to find Creative Briar Pipes by Al Perkowski. On his pipe gallery page, Al had an original pipe style he calls a "Ramses", one of his best-selling types. I was instantly struck how the pharaonic-crown style of the bowl would make a perfect briar bottom for a modern realization of the traditional German motif. Al also is an enthusiast for utilizing beautiful lathe-turned and highly polished stag-horn in several different ways, which he suggested immediately for use in the shank of our Deutsch-Geist pipe. Right away I thought this an inspired idea! There is much in German lore about one Saint Hubertus who converted to a pious life after being confronted by a vision of an immense majestic stag with a huge rack of antlers, between which was a luminous crucifix from which he heard a commanding voice calling him to a life of service. Many heraldic arms in things Germanic make a Hubertus tribute by featuring the majestically antlered stag and cross motif. Al suggested stag-horn sections for the shank using cross-grained turned palm-wood for the ends and ornamented with three rings of briar matching the briar of the bowl section. The palm-wood sections have a rich dark brown color punctuated by black specks. And the shank is topped with a hand-turned full-bent stem. You can see the results in the pictures.
Al uses only the highest quality Grecian, Algerian, and Italian plateau briar and his positioning and treatment of the magnificent flame grain in this custom pipe is pure genius. You can view it from the front of the bowl to back or vice versa and either way, deep blazing flames terminate in beautifully boiling bird’s eye roils. Al said of creating this pipe, "I found this pipe to be very interesting to build. I think it captures the German Porcelain Wine Pipe concept nicely." Al’s genius even extended to such thoughtful but invisible features as mounting the shank on a hollow Delrin rod to both stabilize and strengthen that section and also protect the precious exotic woods and stag horn from discoloration from the inside out over time. I am truly amazed and delighted by how my custom pipe’s concept evolved and came to be what I am sure will be not only a most precious possession to me, but possibly a future heirloom imbued with the awe and gravitas Pappy K’s pipe had for me as a youngster. I must also tell you that the Al Perkowski pipe is a magnificent smoker with a lovely easy draw and a natural coolant/condensing system by virtue of its length that makes smoking it a complete joy. Also I found that once we got started, I couldn’t stop short, so I asked Al to make me a matching tamper and pipe-stand out of the same materials! Magnificent! I must also say that one of the premier joys of this custom pipe adventure for me was working with Al Perkowski who is as fine and professional a gentleman as there can be, and himself the quintessential pipester. He embodies all the old American-school values of customer service and satisfaction, is eminently precise, punctual, and immediate in his communications, and in short, is a return to many American ways that are now largely lost most places!
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Finally, let me divulge a few unanticipated thrills I’ve reaped from my new modern-ancient pipus germanicus. I confess that I am a card-carrying out-of-the-closet lover of aromatic pipe tobaccos. Give me that magnificent decadent dessert soaked cavendish-laden sweet Virginia triple A burley Better-Than-Sex-Cake Blend and I am in seventh heaven. Like a great many men my age, I had uncles, cousins, grandfathers and significant mature men all through my youth that smoked aromatics. When I smell those heavenly wafts out there, I might not be able to tell you a specific brand or blend but a fine and delicious aromatic pipe tobacco flips so many memory, nostalgia, and ambience switches in my brain it is truly amazing. And my own personal chief enjoyment in pipe-smoking is the aroma! Which brings me back to my custom German-style pipe! It is a gigantic boon to enjoying the aroma of your tobacco, whichever style you choose and prefer. There is something about the bowl being over a foot away from your face that allows you to really wallow and rejoice in the marvelous bouquet of the smoke, almost as an objective observer! Another unexpected major advantage is that, because of the length of the pipe, you can see clearly down into the bowl upon light-up. Actually seeing how well the light is going has allowed me to at least half the time of flame to bowl, a great advantage in not scorching the rim. It’s the same after tamping and for relights… you can see exactly what you’re doing and control it accordingly. There is nothing about this custom pipe that I do not like! And in terms of its heft and solidity, should I ever need to improvise a defensive weapon, I’m covered!
The creation and acquisition of this custom pipe has been a great adventure for me that has superbly exceeded all my expectations in the immense pleasure, joy, and sheer exuberance of calling some of the creative shots, working with such a congenial and master pipe-maker as Al, and then embracing the results to have and to hold and to enjoy most likely ‘til death do us part! To anyone who covets such an amiable and pleasant adventure, I wholeheartedly commend it!
About the Author
Jerry is a para-pseudo-retired musician and music educator whose primary instrument, not surprisingly, was the PIPE-organ. (No, seriously!) He holds boundless post-graduate credits that led nowhere and a Master of Divinity degree, the very name of which makes him laugh every time. He presently plays tuba locally (what a pipe that would make!), works on his infinite and eternal Honey-Do list, and enjoys interludes between all that with a fine pipe and tobacco on a woodsie back-porch next to a mesmerizing gurgling fountain.
Written by Kevin Godbee
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Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 635. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with James Ravenwood. James is the boutique tobacco blender of Ravenwood Blends. His blending started out as a fun hobby, and he now has professionally packaged commercially available products with some great tin art. Part of his interest in pipe smoking goes back to fond memories of a retired Navy Veteran that lived on his street while he was growing up that would sit in his driveway smoking a pipe all day. Later, in 2011 he began smoking pipes and soon after started experimenting with mixing different tobaccos. His other hobby, that he has been doing for 30 years, is photography. He takes wonderful photos of outdoor spaces, and still life pictures of pipes and tobacco. You can see them on his Instagram @thebriarfellowship. At the top of the show we’ll have an Ask the Pipemaker segment with renowned pipe artisan Jeff Gracik.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 634! Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Warren Ertle. Warren is an extremely accomplished musician with a PhD in music. He started early as a percussionist in sixth grade. Later his grandmother got him a cheap Casio keyboard which he taught himself to play. He started playing in blues bands in high school, and has been a pianist with jazz big bands for years. Even though he was already a professional musician, he took his first real piano lesson when he enrolled in college with his studies in classical music. He is of course a pipe smoker. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
Soon now, supposedly, our neighborhoods will shift from grinning pumpkins, skeletons in various assortments, and zombies dashing about to pretty reindeer, angels, and flashing lights illuminating homes with sparkling stars and laughing, scurrying Santas. But, lest we forget, there is the turkey season, fancy pie aromas wafting from kitchens, and a national pardon of a big Tom Turkey. Remember, now, that only one of these holiday personalities is a pipe smoker. And that is the hefty, bearded fellow in a bright red suit sitting in a sleigh with a herd of deer hitched up and ready to streak across the globe, bringing tidings of joy and many presents. Ok, the scene is set for the next couple of months, right? So, before we get too far off the beaten path, let’s just take a deep breath of fresh autumn air, shall we? Ahh. That’s better, isn’t it? What’s got the Pundit in a snit is not all the Halloween spooks who came a-jostling for candy. Or the wild turkeys gobbling in the backwoods or all the fuss and feathers over the big one—Christmas. No, it is that we might need to take note of all the little things that mean so much to us. Like a good sunrise (seriously, Pundit has not gone all Pollyanna.) Mayhaps we need to appreciate more of what we have than what we have not. Or something like that. Like, a good pipe in the morning with coffee as the dawn brings us coolish weather now that we have flipped the calendar to autumn. But it also brings beautiful leaves that have become a spectacle of technicolor in the wind. It is the little things. The rereading of an enjoyable book and finding something you did not see or learn in the first go-round. Or a stunning phrase you commit to memory with the re-read, while smoking that favorite pipe. And you notice a superior puff that just seems to be different. It’s in the air and the seasons of meaningful little things. It’s aromatic! Or perhaps it is that sense of satisfaction knowing and appreciating you made it to another day. With the world in a kind of rinse-and-repeat history, reminiscent of a Shakespearean play, it is perhaps a good moment to remember some of Pipedom’s philosophers whose cogent thoughts brought light to clear a path in the mists of confusion and confounding opinions. Ok. No gloom and doom. Just some down-home thoughts. Think of times in the past when history was running off the rails. It took our pipe-smoking thinkers (the mind workers of the world) to speak of better pathways to more light. Think for a moment, with a pipe in hand, these wizards of the world and word: Albert Einstein, J. R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edwin Hubble, Bertrand Russell, C. S. Lewis, and Jean-Paul Sartre. All learned and enlightened. They offered wisdom instead of storms of meaningless roads to nowhere. All while smoking their pipes! Maybe especially with the help of their pipes in the art of thinking and philosophy. Recall the words of Mr. E=MC2 when he said, “I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs.” Amen and amen! Dealing with world-rattling events takes a calm and objective view of things, to the Pundit’s way of summing it up. You just don’t go messing around with quantum physics without a calm and objective approach, methinks. Or as the extraordinary physicist Robert Oppenheimer said after he and a team in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos Labs developed a way to split atoms into bombs during World War II. “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” said Oppenheimer referring to the development of the first nuclear bombs dropped on Japan. It must be pointed out that Oppenheimer was more of a cigarette smoker than a pipe smoker. Nonetheless, pipes were part of his personality. Now, if you have read some of the great authors of the past and present, their pipes were always nearby. Reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle can be a three-pipe problem at times. S. Lewis and Jean-Paul Sartre require time with your pipes to reflect on the existential problems and solutions these authors provide in learned novels and other narratives. Or take Edwin Hubble and Bertrand Russell, philosophers of another world. Pipes are required for reading. The quantum lode of ideas Pundit is attempting to sort out is that our pipes are relaxing and stimulate our thoughts and creativity. Especially in these last months of the year. Many times Pundit has had that light bulb flick on while smoking my beloved pipes. And friends in Pipedom, it ain’t easy to turn on the lights in Pundit’s rock pit head. Now it’s time for a quote from a Pipe Smoker of the Past. Shelby Foote was born Nov. 17, 1916, in Greenville, Miss., and died June 27, 2005, in Memphis, Tenn. A fact is not a truth until you love it—Shelby Foote. A parting thought: It is said that famed Southern author William Faulkner carried a packed pipe in a coat pocket wherever he went. That’s one effective way to deal with workday conflicts and confusion. A calm and objective judgment in our everyday human affairs, as the quantum man said.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 633. Our featured guest tonight is Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and the accompanying online store. We’ll have JD and Brian talking about what’s new at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, Brian will discuss tobacco growing, what happens to the leaf, and provide updated information on where tobacco is being gown today. Tobacco production originated in the United States and we were once the #1 producer. It’s quite different now.
Well there’s nothing like a touch of the plague to usher in the changing season. Leaving the airport just when the first advertisements for all things pumpkin spice began to appear—lattes, muffins, shampoos, trash bags, and myriad other concoctions—so, too, my ability to breathe freely disappeared. The unfortunate side effect of losing one’s sense of taste and smell for weeks is the utter inability to enjoy tobacco. Not that I consider myself an expert on anything but my own tastes, but be forewarned that this review was made with mildly impugned sensory equipment. Just when a comforting pipe was most needed, its comfort was denied. Be that as it may, the road to recovery found me limping along on one lung this past month, trying to wrest the particulars of two blends on offer from Sutliff: the latest 175th Anniversary blend, Silver Quarter, as well as their spooky seasonal Maple Shadows II. Silver Quarter is a new style on offer from Sutliff, their first coin-cut blend. Naturally a Virginia-Perique, it is enhanced with a traditional core of black Cavendish. In the tin it holds much promise, with a lightly bready and very woody, if ever-so-slightly sour, aroma. After some time acclimating to air, the bouquet softens further and offers hints of the burley with some chocolaty notes wafting through the more dominant dry grassy aspect. The tin art is of a coin-style bas-relief bust, presumably of a founding Sutliff brother, à la The Old Boss On the reverse of the tin we find the blend’s description: Reflecting on Sutliffs 175 years of tobacco excellence, we came across a brand that embodies true value, SILVER QUARTER. This name pays homage to Sutliffs roots, the legacy of two brothers who popularized pipe smoking in the burgeoning mining society of San Francisco. We celebrate this heritage with a coin cut composed of the finest African Virginias, complemented by a core of Perique and Black Cavendish. The tin notes are, forgive the pun, on the nose for a good VaPer blend: mild tart sweetness peeking out from behind dried hay and slight chocolate undertones, with a lightly tannic finish of weathered oak. It is always a joy to prepare a coin cut, my preference being to put a few in my palm and vigorously warm my hands together to fully break them apart. These well-formed discs pack and light easily, and smoke with little prodding to the end of the bowl. For technical points it scores well—it smokes light, and it’s easy to tend the ember. While it gets sharp after a few quick bowls, pacing should be heeded to easily smoke down to the heel without inviting bite. Of the flavor, though, I am left a bit wanting. There are tart and high notes aplenty, but very little of the lemony citrus I would anticipate, as well as scant midtones; they tend more toward the red wine-vinegary and sour. The flavors are muted, also, lacking the sweetness and piquancy of other marques—the small measure of Perique tickles the nose now and again with peppery hints, and there is a smidge of a deeper sweetness to be found in the Cavendish from puff to puff, but overall it lacks some dynamism. The Virginias, to my palate, come off a bit on the dry side, and here they dominate the blend. The aftertaste and mouthfeel are neutral, again evincing more of the dry, woody, tartly tannic end of the spectrum. The blend has plenty of polish, but not enough depth or richness (*yet) to make it a standout. Here, comparisons are inevitable: Luxury Bullseye Flake has more sweetness, both from its Virginia as well as its Cavendish, and a better finish; Davidoff is similar but with a pronounced umami that is absent here; as for Escudo, I haven’t had any fresh tins lately so it would be unfair to compare. While it rates as a solid, fairly mild smoke, particularly to lovers of the genre, it does not surprise with any exceptional flavors. To be fair, all the boxes have been checked for the blend to benefit from some real aging, and it would be worth checking in on this after a couple of years sealed away. I’ve set half my tin aside to sample again in a month or two, in case I’m merely suffering from the lingering effects of parosmia, and will amend this review in that case. Maple Shadows II, on the other hand, made up for the weeks of sniffling and sneezing I’d endured. Offered in a full 8 ounce tin with delightfully spooky Halloween art, it’s (hopefully) enough to last through the season. Somehow I had missed this last year, so it’s a real pleasure to get some in my candy bucket this year. As the chilling winds of autumn draw eerie prattle from contorted, deciduous limbs, we find ourselves possessed by the spirit of the season. Bewitched by a dissonant charm, we’ve created Maple Shadows. In a season that is defined by the unlikely harmony of treats and frights, we’ve joined the enchanting sweetness of maple with the earthy spice of Dark Fired Kentucky for a smoking experience that captures the senses with an otherworldly fusion of flavor. This may be the best aromatic blend Sutliff’s ever made—and they make a ton of them. First off, it’s not overbearing in the least—quite the opposite, it is also one of the more restrained aromatics they’ve ever made, with a clear but very light topping that melds oh-so-well with their choice Kentucky added to the mix. Opening the tin, the sweet maple is up front and center, but so too is the must of fallen leaves, bready pie crusts, and a crackling fire in the hearth—a perfect invocation of Herbstdüfte in a can. Packing best in an open and capacious bowl, the flavoring is subtle, and recedes to the background while puffing. With a sweet coffee or tea to accompany, the aftertaste of the maple is reinvigorated on the palate […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 632. Our featured guest on tonight’s show is the host of the Pipe & Tamper Podcast, Mike Murphy. Brian and Mike will have an extended chat revolving around the days before, during and after the Las Vegas International Pipe Show. We will hear about their travels to the show and the anxiety of Hurricane Milton bearing down on Florida at the same time while running a show and not knowing if your house is going to be there when you get home. In the end, the show went great and our homes survived, although many others in Florida were not so lucky. We’ll have clips from the show, and shoutouts to other podcasts and vlogs that were broadcasting from the pipe show.
Great story, FANTASTIC pipe. It is a work of art
Nice story. A small point, however, I think that Mr Nordh would probably take exception to a Ramses being Mr. Perkowski’s “original” style.
Well done! Fine way to carry on the family tradition.
My heartiest thanks for the complements thus far. And to jpberg and Mr. Nordh, my sincerest apologies in lineage of attribution of style type. The error is one of semantic interpretation and entirely my own. I assure you, however, there is a huge artistic “originality” in Al Perkowski’s handling of the style and materials meriting him far more than honorable mention in the execution thereof! He totally owns the mastery of his art!
That was a great story, and one fantastic pipe!
Thank you for a most entertaining and thought provoking article. It, along with the wonderful pictures, enshrines and mingles the history of both pipes — something the next generation will appreciate and revel in. Tuba huh? My kinda guy. 🙂
My Majesty tells me my tuba-prowess is due to my being totally filled with hot air! Hmmmm… I wonder what she means by that?!?! 🙂
Great story. Riddiculously nice pipe. And I’ve become very interested in this “Saint Hubertus” as Hubert is my last name. I didn’t think any of my ancestry included any german… but there’s a lot about my father’s family I’m not privy to. Thank you for a veryfun article to read. Take care of that pipe! It’s truly one of a kind!