12 Months In - Ruminating on Collecting

Pat,
Great post.
My collection parameters are far more refined than when I first started, when I would buy anything that caught my eye.
Now my concentration is on the following, in no particular order:
1. Castellos - I just love the way they smoke. I am thankful that I don't have overly sensitive and petite fangs like Harris.
2. Ardors - I started out collecting these, but I haven't bought one in more than a year. I have about 12, including 4 of their Christmas pipes. One Ardor that I bought very early on is particularly ugly - I posted it on here once to start a "What is Your Ugliest Pipe? thread.
3. JT Cooke - love the hand feel of his pipes. I have two commissions in the works with him now.
4. Larry Roush - I have 6 I think, and I want to complete a 7 day set.
5. Brian Ruthenberg - I have 5 and want to complete a 7 day set.
6. Rad Davis - No comment necessary here. The man makes fantastic pipes. I have a commission in for a Harris Special Calabash which Rad has assured me will look far nicer than Harris's Calabash.
7. Paolo Becker - I have 4 and want a 7 day set. In my view, no one makes better stems than Paolo.
8. Grant Batson - I have 5 and would like a 7 day set.
9. Scott Thile - I have two and, you guessed it, would like a 7 day set.
10. Michael Parks - I have three blasts with two smooth pipes in the works via commission.
11. Ashtons - I have a bunch of these - probably around 15 - including two from the field collection. I have a few of the newer ones, but many are Bill Taylor Ashtons.
12. John Calich - I have two, but am always on the hunt for more.
13. Canadian made pipes - I have a few old Brigham and Trypsis pipes, courtesy of you and smokeybear.
14. Bruce Weaver - I have 6 and want 7.

Great collection Pat - thanks for sharing.

Do you ONLY buy a pipe that meets a specific criteria?

Click to expand...

I like straights. Generally billiards, but I am also open to Liverpools, Canadians, and Dublins. Right now I have 24 in the rotation - all straights, but my favorites are spigots and hope I can one day add a bunch more.

I have a commission in for a Harris Special Calabash which Rad has assured me will look far nicer than Harris's Calabash.

Click to expand...

:clap:

I'm going to commission Dr. Grabow to make me a calabash pipe that is better than Pecks whose calabash is going to be better than Harris's. :lol:

Pruss, Those Trypis pipe look great! I got 7 Savinellis (most of any maker that I own) because of their consistency in smoking quality. I think sticking with one brand and developing a connection to one maker is a big factor for a lot of collectors.

@Pruss, I love that Rosslare, don't know why.

Great story, great pipes, terrific photos. Thanks for posting. I think the term "collecting" is confusing in this context. I would

say you are a pipe smoker with a good stable of pipes, and also restore pipes for re-sale. There are a number of people, at

least one on Forums, who are avid pipe collectors, who don't smoke, and perhaps don't do restoration either. I know it's

just words, "semantics," but it does confuse things a bit.
Confucius said (no he really did!) that in order to have a good society, the first step is to decide what words mean.

Since August 5th of 2012, my pipe collecting has taken a dramatic turn. Before that date, I would buy pipes that caught my eye and was all over the place with different mfgs. Then on August 5th, I smoked my first Rad and everything changed. I was blown away at how comfortable a stem could be and that a pipe never needed a pipe cleaner to soak up excess moisture even when smoking outside in the humidity of a Florida summer. Since then I have bought 17 more Rad's, 4 Ruthenbergs, 2 Bruce Weavers and one each of Scott Thile, Mike Butera, Jody Davis, Stephen Downie, Tonni Nielsen and Steve Morrissete. I have become fanatical about the stem work on my pipes and about the smoking properties i.e dry as a bone and cool smoking. I have unloaded all my other pipes from the likes of Former, Ferndown,Dunhill, Ashton, Lane era Charatan, Ardor, Caminetto, Savinelli, Winslow, Don Carlos, Mastro de Paja, Upshall, Sasieni, GBD and Willmer. I have become so picky as to how I view a pipe before buying it as I look at it in terns of how well it will smoke my flakes. I have stuck to certain sizes( group 4-5) and I am very conscious about the weight of the pipe for clenching. In all my years(13) of pipe smoking, I have never been this focused but I am very glad that I am. I am buying the best smoking pipes to me of my career, and having a blast doing so.
As peck mentioned, my fangs are such that only a certain type of stem feels right to me so that is what I buy. Not all of us can take our teeth out like Peck and gum our pipes making the comfort of a stem a moot point. One day when I grow up, I will have a collection like pecks, but for now, I am very content buying what I do now. The main thing I have learned in the last 1.5 years is that certain pipes smoke certain blends better than others to my tastes. So now I pay attention to how my pipes will smoke my favorite blends.

I don't know about confucius, but I think what Pat is talking about is collecting. I think if you are putting any amount of effort into the search for pipes then you are a collector, whether you smoke them or not. There are some who collect noteworthy cars to drive and there are others who collect them to sit in a showroom - both are collectors in any meaningful sense of the word.

I'm 24 months in and my tastes have taken a pretty dramatic turn. Right from the start I fell in love with Stanwell and thus the Danish school, in particular I was in rapture of the 63M shape and went bonkers looking for examples, at peak I had 18 of them, but since my preferences have shifted I've been able to let go of a clutch of the more modern ones, the early ones are quite scarce to find in good condition and I won't let them go, I love the way their semi-conical thick walled bowls smoke and I love the 1/4 bent Dublin Ivarsson-designed shape...
...but now I'm in love with simple straight billiards, especially older British ones, it was an area I'd long avoided because that sphere of collecting has fierce competition and the truly desirable specimens go for crazy money, plus I thought the billiard shape was plain and boring, but for me it's turned out to be the ultimate smoking machine.
As for the semantic issue, I think there's many different grades of collector. Some people get into certain shapes or certain makers or certain regions, and some people get into certain early examples of specific brands and every other thing where ideological parameters will define their strategy for acquiring pipes, in some cases it can be only about nomenclature or production date and in some cases it may be about the unique abilities of an independent artisan, but in all cases it's about love.
I'm not a purist collector, my most recent pipe is a Churchill, an obscure Charatan 2nd oversize billiard with their typical craggy tanblast and I absolutely love it, if I considered myself a more "serious" or "advanced" collector I would have poo-poo'd the thought of owning such an ugly orphan or bastard child, which helps explain why I only paid $15 for it LOL because alotta collectors get stuck in pedigreeland and simply won't consider "lesser" variants.
I've got several artisan pipes and they are hands down my best smokers, I totally agree with Harris and Peck that these are the grail pipes one should seek if one truly wants the nirvana experience, and I would focus more in that area if funds permitted, for sure, because right now there are some of the best pipemakers the world has ever seen at work and it's a golden age, and as Mike BriarBlues has said, it's better to have one fine artisan pipe instead of ten mediocre factory pipes, and I agree with that.
But I'm also a hopeless romantic and love the historical stuff, the factory stuff, the British stuff with the old briar, and there's such a broad spectrum involved that I've had better luck in the field than I had thought was possible, I had to do alotta research and develop a keen eye, but it's paid vast rewards and enchanted my palate with a sublime happiness.
Ramble rumble ramble,

I'll shuddup now.

LOL

Thanks to folks like Kashmir and Al, I think I'm falling for pre Cadogan Comoys.

Click to expand...

I am of a similar mind, Pat. I love the history associated with these pipes, and I have been reading a lot about them on the internet. I just worry that if I start getting into them there will be no holding me back. I am a bit crazy when I become infatuated, lol. I am bidding on my first comoy auction as we speak, and if I win, yeesh, I don't even want to think about it. Kash and Al will get the blame.

Well I'm 12 months in to my obsession and my collecting has gone rather willy nilly in what I have. At first, as others have stated, I just bought what caught my fancy. Bent, straight, dublin, billiard, apple,there was no rhyme or reason to it. I've never had a true hobby before, never collected anything, never belonged to an Internet forum before, so all of this was new to me. In typical fashion for myself I just waded in, shot from the hip and went for it without too much introspection.
However, after a few months online, I started to take note of what others were saying about smoking properties and how certain shapes tend to perform better with certain types of tobaccos. I started to take a closer look at those really great smokes and what I did to make them great. I paid attention to how the stem on one pipe felt in my mouth, or which of my pipes gurgled and what felt heavy or just right. So I started to build a profile of what a pipe should feel like for me.
I stopped buying pipes on a whim and started to be more focused on anything I purchased. My collection now is really not what I want it to be,but that's ok because this whole thing is a process and I'm enjoying the ride.
I know that I will be buying less pipes and spending more on them. I don't smoke a ton so I don't need a lot of pipes to have a great rotation for myself. I will be purchasing a Rad Davis, or several if I can, and I plan on buying more estates from vendors like Briar Blues. However I believe I will always have a soft spot for Brigham pipes. Not sure of its the Canadiana or not, but everyone I've owned has been a good smoker (even the Italian made ones) and two have been great smokers so I'll bolster my rotation with these good factory pipes.

I'm really enjoying this thread. Like many who got into pipe collecting, my early purchases consisted of whatever caught my eye and there was no more shape to collecting than that. I had a brace of Dunhills, most of them gifts, a few that I traded for my production sketches, a few that I bought.

When I bought my first Barling, which wasn't a pre-trans BTW, I was hooked. As I learned more about the history behind these English factory makes I began to collect more Barlings and a few Comoys, Charatans, and Sasienis. I really enjoyed the way that they smoked, as well as the shapes. Barling became a particular fascination. I sold most of my early purchases, not because they were bad, but because I wanted to bring some focus to my collection.

I enjoy the old shapes and styles, especially pre-WW2 English pipes.
The flip side to English classicism are the American carvers I've acquired, like Trever Talbert, Lee Von Erck, and Paul Tatum. Their work is both personal and excellent. While I don't own a large stock of any one of them, together they form a counterpoint to the classicism of the English pipes.
Peck had better watch himself, Comoys can be very addictive. They're wonderful pipes, and many of the older pieces are very elegantly carved. Should I decide to build up another brand, it will be Comoy. They're really quite a bargain considering the quality.

Excellent thread. I started out buying American Smoking Pipe Company (ASP) pipes from JBH's and Gary Pesh from OVTC got me hooked on Charatans. Gary was the one who prodded me into going to this this called the CORPS show. He seemed to think I had enough nice pipes to display. Let's just say he was being kind, although I still have the Charatan and Dunhill Collector I bought from him.
After going to the CORPS show I started getting into Dunhills, Ashtons and Castellos. Once I built these collections up I looked around and I had a nice collection of pipes just like a few other collectors. Mind you, John Eels taught me a lot about how special Dunhills were, especially the hand cut stems. They are a special pipe, but I decided that my collection really didn't look like there was anything to differentiate mine form anyone else's. About ten years ago I sold all my Dunhill and Ashtons over a couple CORPS shows and decided to focus on American carvers. I already had a good start with my ASP Christmas collection.
I wasn't too long before I ran into Rad Davis and a table full of squashed tomatoes. I wiped him out at that show. Let's just say they were a bargain then. I think he soon realized how good he really was soon after.
Typically, I am not one to buy expensive pipes. If I m looking at one $600 pipe and 2 $300 pipes I will usually go for the 2. It takes a lot to get me to spend a lot of money on a pipe.
Today I find myself just relaxing and enjoying what's out there. Since I am into MCM furniture I am looking at Danishes again. There are a bunch of new American Carvers out there, Artisians as they will call themselves. Some are pretty good, some I really don't understand. A lot of them have prices that start at or near or over $500 and I really don't see the justification for calling oneself an Artisian and sticking a hefty price one's pipes. I think the market will sort that out over time. Rad is a good example, A lot of the pipes I bought began with a 2 in front of them. I remember him shaking his head at how quickly his pipes went. Now his pipes begin with 3's 4's and 5's and still sell really fast so i would say he has earned his reputation.
Some of the newer carvers I like are Jon Rinaldi and Russ Cooke to name a couple. Their pipes are fabulous and reasonably priced for now. Another one I have seen but haven't bought from yet is Bruce Weaver. I almost got one at the last CORP show but alas, I left with a Rad instead. I think that will change soon.
That Charatan 211 and Bennwik listed above are stellar looks pipes and for some reason I too find myself looking at Comoy's for some reason lately.