Colllectible Pipes

Nice pipe, and stamped, or in this case etched, with sufficient information to make it collectible. People collect everything from the rarest and finest artisan pipes sometimes reaching well into the thousands and tens of thousands of dollars in price, to all kinds of factory pipes which are often exciting examples of industrial design and wonderfully executed. I keep grumbling and campaigning in my way for a little more information on the stamping or etching to help people collect pipes, whether they smoke them or not. The more information on the pipe, the more readily we can enjoy their provenance, history, and design features. It energizes me that the little brushed brown Stanwell shape 86 was an original design done for them by Sixten Iversson (sp?). Or that the Stanwell bulldog 32 is one of their original shapes. Or that every one of my Jerry Perry hand-carved pipes has the year it was carved etched on the shank. These little details deepen the experience of each of the pipes. Luciano stamps their pipes with the year of manufacture. Most are stamped with nation of manufacture, and it's nice when the city is mentioned, London or St. Claude or Dublin, etc. If you own one, take a look at your Dr. Grabow bulldog Royalton. The shaping on the bottom of the bowl is quite remarkable for a factory pipe, and we all know where it was made -- Sparta, N.C., and the outfit that made it.

I've yet to pull the trigger on anything but factory pipes (except for some Santia cobs and a Ben Wade I purchased back in the seventies).
I know that many here are "serious" collectors who depend on nomenclature or history. But there is room for casual collecting as well.
Anyone who looks at my pipe stands would say I have a collection although I've never done anything except by pipes that struck my fancy.
While I don't really collect Stanwells and Savinellis, I've accumulated a few. I'm sure I am dangerously close to starting more focused collecting based on finishes, say every Savinellie pipe done in alligator. Or perhaps collect the same shape, eg. 310 KS in all available finishes. I know some folks here collect based simply on shapes. They like dublins, they accumulated a few, and the next thing they knew, they had a full blown collection.
What I don't like about collecting is that it trigger some ugly consumerist, acquisitiveness tendencies in myself. And sometimes PAD is a condition more real than a joke.
Pax

Ask 5 people; you get 5 different answers. I have 4 categories of pipes in my "collection":

1) Handsome name pipes with lots of silver trim and good grain that show well (all smoke well)

2) A huge variety of middle of the road to more expensive which smoke well but are not lookers (some just too big)

3) My 6 favorite smokers; one of my first pipes was a Iwan Ries half bent Dublin, a straight grained Brebbia Cellius, two Petes (1 from the 1915-1922 era that still is great), a Mastro de Paya quarter bent Dublin and (don't gag) straight grained EA Carey Dublin. All smoke superbly!

4) What was I thinking?!?

I could whittle down my collection to categories 1) and 3) and be happy for the rest of my life - those are my collector pipes.

If you are able to hang onto any pipe for thirty years, it becomes a collectable to someone, if only because of age. My earliest several pipes are all either irreplaceable or period examples of pipes that are still around, though none of them were expensive nor would be today.

There's so many Radice pipes I like that if I had the money I'd be collecting them. An affordable collection would be Cobs.

I think for many of us our "Collections" mature with us. We start in one place and proceed through several stages until we arrive at a place we like for that moment, knowing that will probably mature even more. My collection can be broken into three distinctive groups, The early years, the years the kids used up all of my money and now when I can afford some really nice pieces. What I found most satisfying though is that for the most part I still have all of the pipes I added over the years and still smoke most of them on a regular basis. There were a few stinkers along the way but not many. Over the years I collected for different reasons, first to have a decent rotation, then to have some nice factory pipes and now to add some treasured examples of the pipe makers art.

I'd say my John Bessai Sandblasted Poker! Quite a lovely and practical shape, with quite some history behind it!

A pipe is collectible because someone with a collection buys it.

I has posted this in another thread but will ask you guys the same question, as it is on topic. When a manufacturer or artisan releases a limited edition line, e.g. Pipe of the Year, Christmas pipes, anniversary pipes, collections line, etc., do they really become more desirable to collectors? It seems as if some release hundreds if not thousands of copies, so I'm wondering they are really more desirable.
I have a couple of Savenillis and Stanwells of this sort. I think they might be a higher caliber than their average line but not necessarily the best.