Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 444
-
Kevin Godbee - Mar 16, 2021
- 2 min read
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 444! Our featured interview tonight is with Rich Esserman. Rich is a well-known collector of pipes and tobaccos. He is best known for his love of extremely large pipes, many of them Dunhills. Some of the extra large pipes he has were actually made as attention getting window displays, but he smokes them anyway. Why not? Just be careful when he shows up at the tobacco-sharing table with one of them. ?. This show is our first in a series of “Seven Questions for Seven Experts”. Over the course of seven weeks, we will ask seven prominent pipe collectors the same seven pipe related questions, and see how their answers compare. (The seven questions are found below.) At the top of the show in the Pipe Parts segment, Brian will answer a question from a listener pertaining to pipes in extreme, or cold weather. Sit back, relax with your pipe, and enjoy The Pipes Magazine Radio Show!
Use our player above – or – Choose one of the Apps below.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Seven Questions for Seven Experts
1. If you could only cellar 100 tins, would you prefer to have 100 tins of one blend, 50 tins each of two blends, 25 tins each of four blends, or ten tins each of ten blends?
2. What would those blends be?
3. What is the oldest tobacco you have smoked, and how was your experience with it?
4. How has your preference in pipes changed over time?
5. What is the pipe you own that has the most sentimental value, and why?
6. How does situation affect your pipe and tobacco choice, like outdoor versus indoor, morning versus evening, on the go or in a chair?
7. Which famous pipe smoker from the past would you like to share a bowl with? It has to be someone you’ve never met.
The Pipes Magazine Radio Show features interviews with pipe makers, tobacco blenders, pipe and tobacco aficionados, collectors, and more. Episodes air every Tuesday.
Our show is sponsored by SmokingPipes.com, Cornell & Diehl, Missouri Meerschaum, Savinelli Pipes and Tobaccos. Please give them some consideration when making your next pipe or tobacco purchase.
We hope you enjoy our 1-hour show produced just for you—the pipe smoker and collector.
Rich Esserman Interview
Written by Kevin Godbee
More Pipes and Tobaccos Articles
4 Responses
Recent Posts
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.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 637. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Nate King. Most people know of Nate as an excellent pipe artisan. He also has an honorary Master of Pipes degree from the Chicagoland Pipe Collectors Club, and is a member of the prestigious Confrérie des Maitres Pipiers de Saint-Claude. To be inducted into the Confrérie, this past May Nate travelled to Saint-Claude, France with master tobacco blender G.L. Pease, who was also inducted. It was quite a time in France, and at the ceremony. We’ll hear all about those adventures on the show. At the top of the show we’ll continue the virtual tour of Brian’s pipe collection with six of his Satou Dublin-shape pipes.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 636. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Barry Kane. Barry started smoking a pipe in 1961 when he was 14-years old. Back then it seemed like everybody smoked, and you could buy pipes and tobacco just about anywhere. Barry is a true old-school pipe smoker, sticking to just one blend. See if you can guess which one before listening. At the top of the show Brian will give his take on Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s purchase of Mac Baren and Sutliff Tobacco and their announcement that they will be shut down.
Big Rich was as charming and interesting as always. I particularly enjoyed his thoughts on: “How has your preference in pipes changed over time?” Great answer and discussion.
Harry Connick Jr.’s Cole Porter album, a Grammy nominee, is a wonderful collection of tunes, and “I Love Paris,” too.
Very nice coda for Jeff. [I]May his memory be eternal.[/I]
Thanks, I [U][I]was[/I][/U][I] [/I]entertained.
Dino
Great show. Kudus on coming up with another 7 question format. I look forward to all the experts, as I enjoyed them all last time around. Great music!
Really enjoyed this show. It is always a pleasure to listen to one of the “Heroes of the Hobby”. I know diversity is where it is at but I sometimes grow tired of these fellows who have never heard of anybody other than themselves.
Esserman’s smoking has morphed over the years from a dominant Latakia guy to a guy that likes a number of different tobaccos but leans towards Latakia. I was somewhat the same in my earlier years. Really loved Latakia but over time I morphed in to predominantly VaPer smoker. I even went from a person who liked half-bents or greater to just an 1/8 to 1/4 inch bent. Unlike Rich as I got older I moved from a good sized pipe to a bowl size of 2 to 4 and max length of 5.5 inches.
I usually like Connick and I definitely like Cole Porter but for some reason I thought this song wasn’t their best collaboration.
Brian,
Thank you for bringing the 7 questions to the experts series. Rich was thoroughly enjoying to hear again. Thanks for your time & energy to put into each show (along with Kevin’s time and work as well). Constantly learning from you and your guest. Keep up the great work for the hobby.
Sincerely,
Scott Wright