Just saw an advert for a pipe that smoking pipes referred to as an apple. However, the bowl closely resembled the shape of a number of mine which I've seen referred to as billiards-but on the chubby side. So, got me to wondering what the dividing line is between a chubby billiard and an apple? Earl
Difference between a chubby billiard and an apple?
- Thread starter irishearl
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I'm not convinced there is one. To my mind, an apple has a shorter bowl than a billiard, and is more rounded; i.e., the bowl walls are not parallel. However, pipemakers/marketers seem to sometimes use the term interchangeably. As an example, I purchased a Decatur Rustic Apple from P&C (fabulous pipe, BTW, especially for the cost!). It is a billiard, plain and simple. If you look at the pictures of the Rustic Billiard and the Rustic Apple on the website, they appear identical. ???
Some pipes are almost defining of their shapes and others seem to borrow and hybridize quite a bit, subjective indeed. My wife gifted me six Christmases ago with an extra large Johs which I took to be a brandy, but I later unearthed the little enclosure slip that Mogen had included that called it an apple, so I go with that. I like both approaches, the categorical traditional shapes and the ambiguous ones that keep us guessing. For me, the carver or manufacturer has the call, like how to pronounce peoples' names. If their call is completely arbitrary, chalk it up to humor. Iwan Ries, somewhere on their web site, has a zulu they call a Lovat, and there's nothing Lovat about it, but I think that was an overtired web site staffer.
Here's a thread I started last year concerning the subject. I just call them what the maker describes them as now.
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/blurring-lines
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/blurring-lines
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