This is a rather longish post; I hope you'll find it interesting enough to stick around to read it.
Some of you probably familiar with the Marron Glace series of pipes by Savinelli; I had purchased a straight apple from the series and was amazed not only by how well it smoked but the aesthetics involved in making the pipe. As you can see from the photos below it is a dark brown stained pipe, simple in construction, but what makes the pipe stand out is the stem, which is made from an acrylic material that seems to have been formed from shards and crystals of chocolate brown and seems to change in the light depending on how you hold it, almost like a kaleidoscope. Well, I immediately searched for a billiard, my favorite style, of this line, but could find no one in the US who had one. (There were some billiards, but they were the saddle stem style, which I'm not fond of.) I did find one vendor however, in Europe. Only one. In Italy, I think. But they didn't ship to the US. I even tried asking the fine folk at Smoking Pipes if they could help; after a month of effort on their part, they had to admit defeat. The pipe simply wasn't available to them. It was only available at a store called Pipe-A-Porter, and they didn't ship to the US, only to other European countries.
What to do? Well, as presumptuous as it was, I would have to ask a British member of the forum if they would care to go through the nuisance of ordering the pipe for me, have it shipped to them (Pipe-A-Porter did ship to the UK), then ship it to me. Now there are several British members of the forum, but I knew of only one: Andy Stewart, whose postings I've read and found to be a gracious fellow. So I wrote him and proposed that I send him the funds for the pipe, whereafter he would purchase the pipe and have it shipped to me when it arrived. This was a terrible headache to bestow on someone, but Andy had a good reputation and I thought I would take the chance of asking him for this enormous favor even though he didn't know me and I don't believe we had any communications before. To my surprise, Andy was enthusiastic about doing this favor for a complete stranger. I was nervous about the vendor being actually able to make this pipe available: why would Savinelli make such a pipe, then restrict its distribution?
But I decided to chance it. I paid Andy the reasonable amount for the pipe (a little over one hundred in American dollars) and in addition, when I offered it, I sent some prints of my artwork to Andy. Amazingly, he accepted these. Most people like the detail of my pen and ink drawings, but the subject matter is usually gothic and moody, not the sort of thing you'd frame for the living room or the nursery. Andy was in the minority, however: he actually liked the kind of stuff I drew.
After about ninety days, the pipe arrived from Andy's home. It was just as described, as the photos below, with the hypnotizing stem, the extra large chamber, the fine finish. I'm forever in Andy's debt. But it also demonstrates the kind of brotherhood that exists among us pipers. Just a couple of weeks ago, Anthony Rosenthal thought of me when he saw a Halloween themed Peterson pipe on eBay, and a week ago, on one day, I got three boxes from three different gentlemen of Sutliff tobaccos for minor acts I performed. What an extraordinary group of trusting people. Thank you all, and please remember me if you ever need anything.
Some of you probably familiar with the Marron Glace series of pipes by Savinelli; I had purchased a straight apple from the series and was amazed not only by how well it smoked but the aesthetics involved in making the pipe. As you can see from the photos below it is a dark brown stained pipe, simple in construction, but what makes the pipe stand out is the stem, which is made from an acrylic material that seems to have been formed from shards and crystals of chocolate brown and seems to change in the light depending on how you hold it, almost like a kaleidoscope. Well, I immediately searched for a billiard, my favorite style, of this line, but could find no one in the US who had one. (There were some billiards, but they were the saddle stem style, which I'm not fond of.) I did find one vendor however, in Europe. Only one. In Italy, I think. But they didn't ship to the US. I even tried asking the fine folk at Smoking Pipes if they could help; after a month of effort on their part, they had to admit defeat. The pipe simply wasn't available to them. It was only available at a store called Pipe-A-Porter, and they didn't ship to the US, only to other European countries.
What to do? Well, as presumptuous as it was, I would have to ask a British member of the forum if they would care to go through the nuisance of ordering the pipe for me, have it shipped to them (Pipe-A-Porter did ship to the UK), then ship it to me. Now there are several British members of the forum, but I knew of only one: Andy Stewart, whose postings I've read and found to be a gracious fellow. So I wrote him and proposed that I send him the funds for the pipe, whereafter he would purchase the pipe and have it shipped to me when it arrived. This was a terrible headache to bestow on someone, but Andy had a good reputation and I thought I would take the chance of asking him for this enormous favor even though he didn't know me and I don't believe we had any communications before. To my surprise, Andy was enthusiastic about doing this favor for a complete stranger. I was nervous about the vendor being actually able to make this pipe available: why would Savinelli make such a pipe, then restrict its distribution?
But I decided to chance it. I paid Andy the reasonable amount for the pipe (a little over one hundred in American dollars) and in addition, when I offered it, I sent some prints of my artwork to Andy. Amazingly, he accepted these. Most people like the detail of my pen and ink drawings, but the subject matter is usually gothic and moody, not the sort of thing you'd frame for the living room or the nursery. Andy was in the minority, however: he actually liked the kind of stuff I drew.
After about ninety days, the pipe arrived from Andy's home. It was just as described, as the photos below, with the hypnotizing stem, the extra large chamber, the fine finish. I'm forever in Andy's debt. But it also demonstrates the kind of brotherhood that exists among us pipers. Just a couple of weeks ago, Anthony Rosenthal thought of me when he saw a Halloween themed Peterson pipe on eBay, and a week ago, on one day, I got three boxes from three different gentlemen of Sutliff tobaccos for minor acts I performed. What an extraordinary group of trusting people. Thank you all, and please remember me if you ever need anything.
Very nice looking pipe. Congrats! And kudos to Andy for helping you out with that. 
