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Fred Brown - Sep 4, 2024
- 4 min read
This is the time of year I like to refer to as the “in-betweens.” It’s not fall, and summer is taking an occasional breather. Just like some of us who begin to search for new tobacco blends as well as hauling out an old dependable. Deep breaths. It is basically a three-pipe problem!
What got me all in a twist thinking about change is a recent post from Maxim Engle, whose website Pipes2Smoke about his preferences for this time of year. Of course, his season in Ontario, Canada, is a bit different than here in Southern environs.
Maxim, from whom I have purchased many a pipe over the years, says he “shifts to slightly heavier tobaccos with more pronounced Latakia. “The flakes get heavier.”
Maxim has provided me with some of the most remarkable pipes in the Pundit herd, including Ian Walker’s stupendous Northern Briars from England, crafted in that Old English way.
A few Commonweal trophies from the master pipe makers Les Wood, and Michael Parks, and stems by Charles Lemon have come to me via Maxim. Only a handful of these are made each year to continue a tradition Maxim began in 2021. Les Wood and Ferndown are synonymous with other Old English lovers.
And let’s not shrug off Pundit’s love for meerschaum, the ancient beauties from the oceans’ bottomless dark where ancient seashells were crushed and made into properties that only pipe makers could bring to life. Many, many of those gorgeously carved pipes grace the Pundit herd of honor.
Now that we have the pipe show and tell over, let’s return to Maxim’s tobacco maxims. Well, if you are a tobacco wimp like Moi, who does not fondly recall a dose of the heaves produced by a brief encounter with a blend that will go unnamed. Hard-core blends are better left to others.
I know, you tough guys begin looking for a pipe when the description of the blend includes dark-fired Tanzanian leaf and steamed and pressed Virginias. And other things called ropes and bogies!
So, with that, let’s move on. Pundit is very meticulous when it comes to going big blend bazookas as the weather begins to change.
I tend to stick to lighter Virginias and English blends, such as Presbyterian, or a bit stronger on the heavier scale, Cornell & Diehl’s Epiphany, a blend of Virginias, Burleys, Latakia, and Perique. I take this in a special sip and put-down pipe and think of Mr. E equals MC2, Albert Einstein. His smoke was Revelation, which C&D has produced in a most relevant version.
And with our tobacco lessons out of the way today, let’s move on to more prominent issues. You must know by now that Peterson Pipes and SmokingPipes.com have announced the Peterson Pipe of the Year for 2024.
These are always a must-buy for Pundit. Once again, SPC’s Chuck Stanion has written a marvelous retrospection of Peterson’s POYs over the more than two decades the legendary manufacturer has turned them out.
If you want to know more about Peterson’s POY’s recent arrival on the SPC website, check out Chuck’s August Pipe Line for his fabulous Peterson’s Pipe of the Year: A Retrospection.
Now a look at Pipe Smokers of the Past:
Some legendary authors grace the September list of PSOP. Three of the authors for September won the Nobel Prize for Literature: William Faulkner, T.S. Eliot, and William Golding, of British heritage.
Let’s begin with William Cuthbert Faulkner, a Southern author who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949. He was born on Sept. 25, 1897, in New Albany, Miss., and died July 6, 1962, in Oxford, Miss.
No man is himself, he is the sum of his past—William Faulkner.
Sir William Gerald Golding, Nobel Laureate (1983) a British, novelist, poet, and playwright, was born on Sept. 19, 1911, in Newquay, United Kingdom, and died on June 19, 1993, at Tullimaar House, Perranarworthal, Cornwall, United Kingdom.
We need more humanity, more care, more love—From 1983 Nobel lecture.
Thomas Stearns Eliot was born on Sept. 26, 1888, in St. Louis, Mo., and died on Jan. 4, 1965, in London, United Kingdom.
T.S. Eliot moved to England in 1914 and became a British citizen in 1927. He renounced his American citizenship and lived in England. Author of one of the most influential literary works, The Waste Land, in 1922, was instrumental in winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948.
Eliot is considered one of the most consequential poets of the 20th century.
Although a search of history records that report Eliot was a heavy smoker, finding his favorite pipe tobacco blend or cigar preferences has not turned up much in the way of facts.
The very existence of libraries affords the best evidence that we may yet have hope for the future of man—T.S. Eliot
And now a Parting shot from Pundit: I had a three-pipe problem not too long ago. I took masterful advice from fictional detective Sherlock Holmes who said he needed time for quiet, a time to work on the problem alone. He did and it took him less than an hour to solve his case in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Red-Headed League.
It took me a bit longer than an hour, but the Sherlockian three-pipe method worked. You might give it a try the next time you have a difficult curve ball.
Three pipes will be all you need.
Written by Fred Brown
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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.
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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.
