G. Huybrecht Pipes as Smokers?

In his book titled "Rare Smoke - The Ultimate Guide to Pipe Collecting" author Richard Carleton Hacker mentions an intriguing brand which caught my fancy: G. Huybrecht. In the chapter titled "The Collector's Compendium of Pipe Brands" Mr. Hacker had this to say of them: "One of England's most secretive pipemakers, this firm is so obscure that most pipe smokers in Britain are not even familiar with its name." Thus baited, I have been looking for one of their pipes ever since. This morning I purchased a late London Castle model (pictured in the images below) from a seller on eBay.
According to the "London Castle Pipes" entry on pipedia.org:

"Founded in 1919, it was originally known as Davies & Huybrecht. One of the smallest and most obscure of the older British pipe makers. Their specialty was the making of pipes with flawless wood in traditional British shapes from Algerian briar. Their pipes were available only from Smith's Snuff Shop in London. Each pipe was offered without the stem and the customer then specified the stem he wanted.
"In the late 1990's the last Mr. Huybrecht retired and passed away a few years later. He left over a 100 bowls. Many were unstained and without stems. In June of 2006 we located the old bowls and are now having them stained and stemmed. The mouthpieces are hand cut Vulcanite and every pipe is stamped "London Castle, G. Huybrecht".
"We are extremely pleased to offer a limited selection of London Castle pipes by the late G. Huybrecht. The bowls we have are the last of an 80 year old tradition of British pipe making. They are classic British shapes and smaller pipes, averaging Group 3-4 size."


How are these pipes as smokers? If you have (or have had) one, please let me know.

ssjones:
Thank-you for the link to the McGahey The Tobacconist Website. I had not seen any of the Huybrecht/London Castle smooth-finished pipes. Very pretty!
Interestingly, the pipedia.org entry for London Castle Pipes was created by Maxim Engel of the pipes2smoke.com Website. A quick search of that site showed none for sale.
eBay Seller Second Hand Smokes had a rusticated, bent, G. Huybrecht pipe listed a few months back, but it just did not appeal to me as this one did. I am earger for its arrival and subsequent baptism by fire.

Here's some additional information from the Seller's (VikingClubPipes) listing for this pipe:
Measurements:

6.2" long

1.9" tall bowl

1.675" deep bowl

.85" wide bowl

"O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! He chortled in his joy."
Why? Because this afternoon the Postman delivered my G. Huybrecht pipe! The Seller's images simply did not do it justice. It is beautiful in the best British tradition, and surprisingly light. Further, the hand-cut bit is first rate. It will get the salt-and-alcohol treatment this evening, followed by a thorough drying, and then the baptism by fire.
Congratulations, too, to the eBay Seller, forrestmattia (aka VikingClubPipes on the Web), for an excellent job in packaging this pipe for shipment. Without being asked, he remembered to remove the bit from the pipe's shank, and to wrap each separately. A little thing, perhaps, but important in my book.

mattia76:
I was not aware that you were a member of the Forums here, but am glad! I'm also glad that you elected (for whatever reason) to part with this particular G. Huybrecht London Castle pipe! I will be inaugurating this weekend with some Sutliff Balkan Luxury Blend, and am looking forward to the experience.