Counselor - Are you qualified to compare the quality of Marxman Pipes with Castello pipes based upon direct experience smoking, breaking in, and owning Castello pipes. Your honor, permission to treat the respondent as a hostile witness.
A Closer Look at Briar Grain
- Thread starter Briar Lee
- Start date
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@telescopes
The fish ain’t biting………
@Briar Lee
You could easily have bought a Castello with what you have spent on Marxman and Lee pipes in the past 3 months alone
Many years ago the wife of one of my (very) rich clients came in with a Christmas present for me - a $2.50 bottle of red wine.
She was absolutely genuine when she opined that that was her favourite red.
I don’t know what else she would have drunk, but she said it in a way that meant “I’ll be happy to drink this and only this for the rest of my life. I could have spent more, but why ?”
@Briar Lee seems very content with his Marxman and Lee pipes.
Except he‘s on a mission to own the world’s largest collection of those marques
I do honestly remember more people getting bum pipes and having basket pipes being a genuine gamble.
I’m going to buy a Castello next year.
I expect it to be a good smoker.
But there’s maybe a five per cent chance at most it equals the first truly dynamite smoker I bought in the early nineties, a Grabow Grand Duke that had aged over thirty years behind a cabinet in an old lady’s inherited store at Lead Mine, Missouri.
That $100 Marxman 400 I just bought would be a $500 pipe in today’s dollars new. It’s a dynamite smoker, but all 70 plus year old Marxman pipes are.
Marx was the American Castello of his time period, except he had little regard for anything other than smoking quality.
Some part of the smoking quality of a Marxman is they’ve all aged 70-90 years, and he used well aged briar when they were new.
And he did make a few pretty ones.
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No.
Unless a Chinese Pickup and a Porsche have comparable fitness, workmanship and engine capabilities. Marx was NOT a high end pipe as measured by what makes quality and quality control. LOL
No.
Unless a Chinese Pickup and a Porsche have comparable fitness, workmanship and engine capabilities. Marx was NOT a high end pipe as measured by what makes quality and quality control. LOL
One of the indicators of quality is price.
Marx was listing and selling these hand made “Big Boy” pipes for $15 in the deep, dark Depression. Even the $10 “C” was expensive, matching Kaywoodie Flame Grain pricing. These would be about $325 today compared to $15 in the late thirties and $200 in the late forties. These were all hand made at a bench according to the grain, and the briar used was aged Algerian.
The top four are $15 Big Boys and the bottom a $10 Flatside (Opera) C size. I actually own more $15 Big Boys (no size stamp, bigger than a C) than C size Marxman pipes, by a large margin.
Our grandfathers who could afford $15 pipes in a world full of name brand dollar pipes were not fools. These sold for more of a multiple over a hundred dollar pipe than Castello pipes do today.
At $5 and up all Marx pipes were bench made, no choice of shapes (except Super Briar).
Marx spend today’s equivalent of millions of dollars a year in advertising.
I think the 1953 Recession caused Marx to quit winner and sell out.
Kaywoodie sold out to Wally Frank about the same time. Tracy Mincer went broke in 1950. Lee went over to stamped stars, then push stems.
Weber alone seems to have made it through the fifties more or less intact.
After the postwar boom pipe sales declined in favor of cigarretes.
Castello sells pipes in a market an incredible hundred times less than 1940.
Marx pipes were not drug store pipes, not even the cheapest $2.50 Morocco or Dunsboro or Selected Grain.
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The inflation rate isn't the same across the board. Five dollar Gtabows of the '40s are only $40 now.
That's how clever marketers get you. Value and quality are different animals. Branding and availability have a big influence on pricing.
One of the challenges of inflation calculators is vastly increased purchasing power today versus the Depression. People have more discretionary income today. About 25% of men were unemployed then. They weren’t buying many luxury goods.
Another problem is while there were mass mail order marketers like Sears and Wards in the Depression brick and mortar small retailers were the norm. Profit margins were higher.
By 1940 there were about 30 million briar pipes a year sold in the USA, today probably one or two per cent of that number. There was a huge market for the bottom end.
Is a modern high end Castello worth the cost? Sure, it is. They’d not sell if they weren’t.
The majority of that added value is artistic and meticulous and painstaking craftsmanship,,,,,aesthetics.
And a high end pipe today needs the top of the market briar to sell, again based mostly on aesthetics.
One thing I know.
Dead luxury pipe brands like Marxman are bargains today compared with when they were new.
This pipe was the 600 pound gorilla in the room in its day. Most any shape in a huge catalog, and beautiful briar that likely hasn’t been equalled.
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Cost: $10. Marketing budget: $398,000,000.
Cost: $10. Marketing budget: Closer to $398.
Just sayin.
Cost: $10. Marketing budget: Closer to $398.
Just sayin.
Nevermind. My desire to post further responses here is a direct result of my own idiosyncratic irritation relating to the haphazard slinging of likely refutable conjecture and speculation rather than a desire to engage in what I suppose could possibly, maybe, one day, if the stars aligned, end up as an informative or erudite discussion on pipes or briar. Bowing out.
We all have the right to believe what we would like and smoke what we please anyway. Wrong or right, if the combination of those two things leads to a more pleasant experience for the person in possession of them, then that’s a win.
We all have the right to believe what we would like and smoke what we please anyway. Wrong or right, if the combination of those two things leads to a more pleasant experience for the person in possession of them, then that’s a win.
When all is said and done, every briar pipe is a hunk of wood with a hard rubber stem.
These are actually good, sweet smoking pipes.
But I just bought a much better used one for $10, made of Algerian Briar.
Old pipes are a much better bargain than new.
These are actually good, sweet smoking pipes.
But I just bought a much better used one for $10, made of Algerian Briar.
Old pipes are a much better bargain than new.
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Well, oils ain‘t oils
There’s a good reason why mince is $5.99/Kg and prime rib eye or porterhouse is $25/Kg
You’ve stated your preference
There is no need to belabour your point
While you may pique the interest of a few members enough for them to buy a Marxman or Lee to see what the fuss is all bout, you haven’t convinced me that these are the bees’ knees
You’re kidding, right?
No.
Castello competes with other pipes that cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars.
A Cadillac is better than a Buick which is better than a Chevy, although all three are excellent makes.
Marx competed against Kaywoodie, Weber, Custombuilt, LHS, and later Lee.
They’d all sell you a luxury pipe.
I think I agree with @alaskanpiper that it is difficult to have a serious discussion about the question at hand when the discussion to often is a reinforcement of a particular line of thought based on repetition of a particular view point rather that an honest discussion of observable facts. The line of reasoning reminds me of a Sunday school debate.
Briar Grain - What is it? What role if any does it play in terms of smoking quality? Artistically, what makes beautiful briar grain? All of these questions can be addressed without arguing the merits of a Marxman Pipe.
There are many Marxman pipe threads. How many do we need? And I enjoy Marxman pipes, but perhaps we should keep Marxman pipe discussions in those threads when possible.
Briar Grain - What is it? What role if any does it play in terms of smoking quality? Artistically, what makes beautiful briar grain? All of these questions can be addressed without arguing the merits of a Marxman Pipe.
There are many Marxman pipe threads. How many do we need? And I enjoy Marxman pipes, but perhaps we should keep Marxman pipe discussions in those threads when possible.
Well, I've never driven a Ferrari, but I can't see how it could be that much nicer than a Honda, right? I mean, Hondas are niiiice.
Here’s a Weber Golden Walnut Prince from the Marxman era.
Another Golden Walnut Walrus
It would be a high dollar Italian pipe today to equal the beauty of grain and careful finish of a five dollar Weber Golden Walnut.
Marx competed against these.
About the only thing I can knock a Weber about is most of those gems look like a forties dress watch—-small for today’s style.
But they were pretty pipes to buy for the same five bucks most Marxman pipes cost then.
Weber also used Algerian briar, but not the same grade as Marx, and not exclusively.
Of all the high end factory pipes of the forties era I think Weber was the best bargain for the five dollar minimum a luxury pipe cost then.
But a Custombilt and Marxman were just over the top a rugged style we don’t see much of today.
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