Show And Tell from the 2014 Chicago Pipe Show
-
Kevin Godbee - May 14, 2014
- 6 min read
Fred Brown
CHICAGO—Well, the 2014 Chicagoland International Pipe & Tobacciana Show is in the history books. There are some left over stories that are just begging to be told. So, here we go:
If you have never been to the show, you owe it to yourself and to your love of pipes and tobacco to put it on the bucket list. You won’t be sorry.
One of the neatest stories at the show was Odalys Gonzales of The Gonzalez Family Cigars. Odalys, 42, is from Cuba and has been in Hialeah, Fla., for about 15 years hand-rolling cigars.
Get this. She learned how to roll cigars as a child watching her grandfather, Lorenzo Gonzalez. The family lived in Pinar del Rio, cigar country in southern Cuba. Lorenzo rolled for the Romeo y Julieta brand, one of the most iconic cigars in the world. Even Sir Winston Churchill was a fan, and had his name forever linked to the cigar with the Churchill size 7×47.
Odalys was busy at her table inside the 6,000-square-foot smoking tent attached to the Mega Center at the Pheasant Run Resort, home of the pipe show, rolling cigars as fast as she could. The cigars, selling for $10 a stick, were flying off the table as well.
Odalys Gonzales of The Gonzalez Family Cigars.
"I have been rolling cigars," she said in a beautiful Cuban tongue roll, "since I was a child sitting in my grandfather’s lap."
The "chabeta" rolled and snipped tobacco leaf expertly, barely making whisking sounds in her hands. The chabeta is the wide blade cigar rollers use to shape the leaf before rolling. It looks like a half moon with a wooden handle.
Odalys Gonzales of The Gonzalez Family Cigars.
Odalys chabeta was chipped and the wooden handle was slick with wear. "My grandfather gave this to me," she says with a beautiful smile, never missing a roll of the chabeta.
Odalys Gonzales of The Gonzalez Family Cigars.
A new pipe line is in the works from Savinelli, one of which is the "piano forte." Brandon S.A. Bellegarde, general manager of Laudisi Distribution Group, mentioned this tidbit while discussing the hot new Kiribi pipe lighter, a dual soft flame for pipes.
Kiribi Pipe Lighter (Courtesy Laudisi Distribution Group)
Kiribi, by the way, is from the ancient art of striking agate against quartz to make sparks for good luck. That’s from Brandon, too, who says his personal favorite is the Kabuto shape, which has the Samurai helmet horn look. Neat stuff.
This year, the Chicago Pipe show added a cigar night for the cigar aficionados, which filled the smoking tent to about max. "This is a larger than usual Thursday night for us," said Craig Cobine, show director. "That’s the point of the cigar show, to bring in more people. And, a lot of pipe smokers smoke cigars, so we thought it was time to have some cigars." Cobine says the show has a distinctive philosophy: "We try to bring in change every year. People want the new, but they also rely on what has been."
Chris Karas, 56, of Burton, Mich., was in a familiar role this year. He won the United Pipe Clubs of America slow smoking contest. . . .again.
And the Winner!
Chris With Time in Background
Chris With Trophy, David Bull (L), Mike Garr (R) – both of UPCA
Going into the 12th annual contest this year, he was a two-time winner. He won the male division of the contest with a time of 1:32.52. He battled it out against Alexey Shekhovpsov, 40, of St. Petersburg, Russia, for about 20 minutes as the last two standing, so to speak. The Russian dropped out at 1:24.29.
Alexey Shekhovpsov of St. Petersburg, Russia, placed second in men’s division of pipe smoking contest
The women’s title was won by Rie Jackobsen of Denmark, who went out around the hour mark just before Shekhovpsov. She was vying to become the first woman to win the contest, but she just missed it.
Rie Jackobsen
Rie Holding Trophy High, David Bull (L), Mike Garr (R) – both of UPCA
Rie Kissing Trophy, David Bull (L), Mike Garr (R) – both of UPCA
This year’s smoking contest drew 92 contestants, the largest field in the 12 years of the contest history. Last year there were 77 contestants.
One show official said they almost ran out of contest pipes, a nicely designed briar billiard by Claudio Cavicchi of Bologna, Italy, and produced by Luciano of Milan, Italy.
Chris Karas is also a three-time world champ with another pipe organization and placed 23rd in last year’s global world cup contest in Poland.
A large crowd watches the pipe smokers in the contest
Scott is from Mt. Pleasant, Mich., and is a member of the Order of Collegiate Pipe Smokers.
Here is a PDF with all of the times from the slow smoke contest.
The Chinese were present in a big, big way at this year’s show. I saw one Chinese shopper walking out of the gargantuan Mega Center 35,000-square-foot exhibition center with three or four large shopping bags filled with pipes. It was like Christmas in May.
Li Jun, public relations manager of a Chinese pipe making outfit, whose name I can’t comprehend, told me that "pipe smoking in China is increasing and is now the second or third largest market in the world."
You might guess that about like everything else in the world, the Chinese expect to be first in the market soon.
"We are the largest pipe maker in China," Li Jun told me. "We have seven pipe makers who are very skilled."
There are not so many pipe shops in China, Li Jun, says, but quite a few Chinese-made pipes are on the Internet.
One American pipe enthusiast was overheard to say that "I picked up a Chinese pipe. It was $3,000." He replaced it gently.
The UPCCA presented several awards during the five-day gathering.
Mark Ryan, president of Daughters & Ryan Inc., and the savior of the St. James Parrish perique fields, was noted for his contributions to the tobacco industry.
Chuck and Susie Levi of Chicago’s Iwan Ries & Co. were also presented a UPCCA award for promoting the fellowship of pipe smoking.
And, finally, there is Reggie Stevens, 71, of Birmingham, England.
He is a member of the Chicagoland Pipe Collectors Club and has been coming to the show for a decade.
"I travel 4,000 miles just to go to work," says Reggie, who is known to one and all who attend the show as "Reggie."
He is like a dynamo, everywhere at once, helping and escorting or ushering.
Reggie is a singular personality, but that’s not so unusual.
He was born in the midst of the blitz bombing of Birmingham during World War II, and spent his first year on earth in and out of bomb shelters with his family.
And, get this, he smokes his pipes only once a year now. At the Chicagoland International Pipe & Tobacciana Show.
All Photos by Fred Brown
|
|
Written by Kevin Godbee
More Pipes and Tobaccos Articles
1 Response
Recent Posts
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 641. Our featured interview tonight is with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl and is featured in our recurring series, “Ask the Tobacco Blender”. However, tonight he will be the interviewee as we learn about how he became a pipe smoker and collector, when he got his first pipe and how he progressed from there. At the top of the show, Brian will have a review of the rare German tobacco blend, Tumblin’ Dice.
I remember the first time I heard someone else say it. “How many pipes do I need? Just one more.” It’s glib, sure, a bit of a joke, but it also rings a bell of truth, at least to me. I certainly have “enough” pipes, but pipes are seductive little things. Just when we think we’re all set, we have enough, another will come along that tempts us beyond any sense of reason. I suppose it’s the same way with any sort of collecting. There’s always another white whale we’re in pursuit of. When we finally track that one down, though, another will almost inevitably breach the surface, taking its place as the new object of our desire, enticing us to change course and set sail once again. But, there’s a potential problem with having a lot of pipes. Maybe. The more pipes we may have, the harder it can be to keep them in rotation. It makes sense. We tend to gravitate towards our current faves, the ones that most appeal to us for whatever reason, and sometimes, maybe they stay in rotation longer than they really should. The side-effect of this, of course, is that another favored pipe might end up too-long forgotten. That’s exactly what happened recently. Exhibit A: The Castello pictured is one that has been long overlooked. It’s a Trademark shape #55. It’s a really nice example of the shape. The red pearlized stem is beautifully done. The wood isn’t really anything special to look at, but it’s evenly covered, without any bald spots. When I look at it, I wonder why it wasn’t done in the more typical dark ruby-red finish that adorns most Trademarks. I’ve seen a great deal of variation amongst the grade over the years, including one really nice bent-bulldog that left the factory with a brown sandblasted finish. (For those who don’t know, Trademark has long been the lowest Castello smooth grade, usually finished in a dark red.) Was this a stamping/grading error, or is there just more leeway in the grade than we’ve come to expect? I might never know. This example is from the early 1970s, maybe even the late 1960s, identified by the upper case Ks in the grade designation. (On Sea Rock and Old Antiquari pipes, the Ks reflect the size, while with the smooth finishes, Trademark, Castello and Collection, the Ks represent the relative grade.) It has been living in a different rack than the one housing the majority of my #55s. I don’t recall why I put it there, but as many of us can relate to, rack space is often at a premium. I stumbled upon it while looking for something completely different. “Oh, you? Why are you there? I remember you smoke pretty well.” Yeah, I sometimes talk to my pipes – one of many quirks, I suppose. I won’t begin to worry until they start talking back. I grabbed it from the rack, dusted it off, and decided to give it a fill with a bowl of a slightly aged VA/perique blend, Telegraph Hill, from 2018. What a delightful smoke! At five years, the tobacco is expressing a lot of the complexities of aged Virginias and the perique adds a delightful fruitiness. When young, the composition is a bit brighter, maybe a little spicier, but time has polished any edges, and amplified the sweeter notes. Like the pipe, I’d forgotten about this blend for quite a while, but one evening in March, after chatting with my good friend Nate, who is quite a fan of it, I decided it might be time to revisit it. I got a couple of fresh ones, and excavated a couple older tins from the library. I normally reach for Fillmore when I want a VA/perique thing because of its boldness and depth, but in revisiting this one, I’m finding something soothing and comfortable about it that I’ve really been enjoying, both young and aged. Sticking with the theme of the forgotten, and as a perhaps interesting tidbit to the photographically inclined, I shot the pictures for this month’s column with my old Nikkor-O 35mm/2.0 mounted on my trusty Nikon Df. The last time I used this lens, it was adapted to one of my Fujifilm bodies, and I didn’t care much for the results, so I put it away and pretty much forgot about it. But, I’ve recently been exploring some of my old kit, deciding what to keep, what to pass along, and this one once again came to my attention, kind of like that old Castello. On the Df, there’s something about its vintage rendering that I find truly appealing. Another forgotten treasure, and just like with that old pipe, it seems that, at least today, everything old is new again. If your collection is on the large side, are there pipes or tobaccos that you’ve all but forgotten, only to come back to them one day to find yourself wondering why? Maybe it’s just another fun dimension to this endlessly fascinating journey.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 640. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Ben Rapaport. Ben has been known internationally as an avid pipe smoker, antique pipe collector, and book author. His first book on pipes was published in 1972, and his latest book – his 10th – is out now in very limited quantities. The distribution has already sold out, but you can still get a copy of “The Wide World of Wood Tobacco Pipes. Two Centuries of Craftsmanship and Creativity” by contacting him directly at ben70gray@gmail.com. At the top of the show we’ll be turning the tables on our recurring Ask the Pipemaker segment. This time, Jeff Gracik will ask the questions, which Brian will answer as a pipe collector, and you can give your answers too.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 639. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Per Billhäll. Per is the owner of Scandinavian Pipes, which is an online retailer of high grade pipes. He started smoking pipes in the 1960s. His first high grade pipe was made by Hans “Former” Nielsen, who is one of the living legends from Denmark. That led to Per becoming a huge pipe and tobacco collector, and show attendee where he became well known. Along with pipe book author Jan Andersson, they started The Pipe Club of Sweden in 1991. Then in 1999, Per started “Scan Pipes”. He is now one of the pipe retailing legends from Sweden. At the top of the show Brian will talk about holiday blends, and other special pipe tobacco blends.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 638. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Fae “The Sassy Pipe Lady” Simmons. Fae is the owner of Tobacco Treasures, which sells new, vintage, & estate pipes, and smoking accessories on Etsy. She has been in business since 2017, and has been surrounded by pipes and tobacco most of her life. Her father and his brother smoked pipes, and so does Fae. Her husband is also a retired tobacconist that worked all over the industry from coast to coast for several different companies in the industry. She has a great story of how her business got started with a great inventory of unsmoked vintage pipes. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
Ok, so it’s that time of year, as we all know. Family feasts, houses, yards, and big trees festooned with lights and dangling ornaments, just high enough to keep the cats from reaching a paw into the greenery. It’s also the time of year when your pipe-smoking-significant other makes vast hints about a new pipe. That’s to be expected since he or she was a good boy or girl during the year. Yes, ladies smoke pipes, too. Oh, you want an example? Okay, try Actress Greta Garbo, Millicent Fenwick, Mary Frith, and my late grandmother (who died when she was 93) dipped snuff and smoked a cob occasionally. So now that we have settled that the gentler side of life will puff a pipe too, let’s move on to the upcoming biggest holiday of all. Of course, that huge event is brought to us by the hefty fellow in a red suit, puffing his pipe all the way in a sled filled with presents, being led by a reindeer with a red nose. Or some such. That’s Santa Claus, of course. Becoming a bit more serious, Christmas is such a wonderful time for families and friends. It’s also quite special for pipe puffers. For many of us, this brings up a nostalgic look back to our pipe-smoking or cigar-smoking friends who have died during the current year. A great journalist pal whom I often joined in a local brick-and-mortar pipe and cigar shop. I puffed my pipe, and occasional cigar, as he enjoyed a cigar. He died in October and will be missed. On the happier side of things, Christmas is also a time when mind workers of the world renew their collections with fresh additions. Pundit included. A French passion has overtaken Pundit, from reading more Albert Camus, a heavy cigarette smoker, as were many French intellectuals of a certain time. Instead of cigarettes many of us prefer the more relaxed enjoyment of pipes for that “calm and objective judgment” in the comings and goings of the world. This brings me to French pipes. While visiting France once in the long ago, I happened by a “Tabac” shop in Paris, Tabac Des Vosges. I purchased a beauty of a Chacom bent. I also later bought a Ropp made from ancient briar. To learn more about the dawn of briar pipes and beginnings, take a peek at a well-done piece by Davin Hylton in Pipe Line on April 12, 2023, on Saint-Claude, France, the birthplace of briar. Also in the long back when, on a cold Christmas afternoon, Pundit wandered into an Atlanta bricks and mortar pipe shop to look around. There, resting in an enclosed glass counter was an exquisite Comoy. An older gent, smoking a beautiful bent, asked me if I wanted to look at that pipe. It had a $100 price tag. A college student working for a grocery store chain to help with college tuition at the time, Pundit didn’t have one hundred cents, let alone a C note! I declined and found a $5 basket pipe. A Christmas tradition had just begun. Since that early time, Pundit has made it a holiday ritual to either reward himself, or a special friend, with pipe or tobacco. A Claudio Cavicchi would be nice. Just sayin.’ And now for a couple of December-born Pipe Smokers of the Past: Joseph Rudyard Kipling was born on Dec. 30, 1865, and died on Jan. 18, 1936. I always prefer to believe the best of everybody; it saves so much trouble—Rudyard Kipling. Martin Van Buren, born Dec. 5, 1782, and died July 24, 1862, U.S. President, 1837-1841 As to the presidency, the two happiest days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrender of it—Martin Van Buren. And one more note to recall a deceased World War II veteran who loved William Somerset Maugham, the author. Maugham, a pipe smoker, was born in Paris, France, on Jan. 25, 1874, and died on Dec. 16, 1965. One cool afternoon as the veteran and I talked while sitting in his backyard patio, he looked off into the distance as if studying something. Nothing in particular. Just looking. He turned to me and said if I wanted to learn about life, “read Somerset Maugham.” I did. It wasn’t until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say, ‘I don’t know’ –W. Somerset Maugham And now a Parting Shot: Any day with an old friend with pipes and tobacco is a good day.
As a cigar smoker as well this was a great angle for an article, topped off by excellent photos. Hooray for China, they may well be keeping the future bright for those of us who want to continue to indulge in our habit into the future.