Comoy Quality
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The pre-merger ones with the three inlaid C (mid-70s & earlier) are great smokers IMHO. Lovely grained briar and high quality low sulfur vulcanite stems that oxidize very slowly. Also the thin bits are a pleasure for clenchers like me. Hardly know you're carrying a pipe. Don't need to go for expensive Blue Ribands and Selected Straight Grains either. Traditions and Grand Slams are great too. No fills. Old Bruyeres too. Then you've got the Comoy seconds that run the gamut in quality. But you've got to do your homework. Pipedia is a great place to start. I've got about 30 of them representing half of the pipes I own. Expensive? Relative to what? They're certainly less than Dunhills and have far better grain IMHO. I've bought some beautiful example from under a hundred to $150. The company cut great classic English shapes. Here's a snap of their take on the bulldog theme.
Here's an example of a $95 eBay find. It's a Comoy's Grand Slam No. 398 squat bulldog. Got some bird's eye going on both sides of the bowl. LOL. Which is something you don't see outside of high priced artisan pipes.
Pre-Cadogan? You bet. Very nice briar and excellent stem work. I've never had one that wasn't a delight to smoke and gaze at!
I've got a couple of post 70s examples, with the lasered C, which buffs off almost by hand. They smoke great too. Mine were made in England. But the really recent examples I hear are coming out of Italy. And I haven't tried those. But why bother when you can pick up pre-70s estate for under a hundred? If you like classic English shapes, and appreciate history, give one a go. You can always resell it if its not to your taste.
I've had two Cadogan era (stamped stem) pieces, they were OK, nothing special nor bad. Like Kashmir advocates, you can get a fine 3 pc logo Comoys for under $100, so why trifle with the others? I sold two pre-Cadogan era pipes, to buy that 499 both for $50 and $75 each.
Well, Comoys are not like Dunhills. Can't fix an exact year. Just ballparking. C stem logo: Three kinds. Pre-mid 70s merger its a three part inlay. Mid 70s to mid 80s its a single circular C inlay. Post 80s it a lazered painted on C logo, easily buffed out. Circular Made in London over straight England post WWII. Circular Made in England no London pre-war. Football shaped Made in England even earlier. Three digit shape numbers pre-merger. Four digit shape numbers post-merger. That should get you started. Check out Pipedia's Comoy pages. Also Dereck Green website. Also Greg Pease had a blurb on dating Comoys. Neill Archer Roan's blog has a number of fine articles on Comoy. Also don't forget the Jacque Cole article. And if you believe the legend Henri Comoy started the whole commercial briar thing mid 19th Century in St. Claude France before moving to London, then the House of Comoy was well established before ol' Alfred Dunhill came along. Cheers.
Well said Kashmir. The Pipepedia and Derek Green sites have plenty of information.
http://pipedia.org/wiki/Comoy%27s_Dating_Guide
http://pipedia.org/wiki/Comoy%27s_Dating_Guide
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