I'm delighted to see so much of this thread dedicated to Pipes by Lee, a justly neglected brand, if only for the amusement value it affords. Since in the course of reading the many posts herein I've been reminded that refutation consists of contradiction (as Monty Python demonstrated so well a half century ago), I will dispense with the cumbersome need for evidence and simply point out:
There was essentially one sub brand as you call it, Briarlee; and under the Briarlee brand several models were introduced over the years, including the Invincible and the Illustrious (sold from the launch of the company onward), the Stroller (introduced the following year, and initially at least distinguished by its hand carved finish), and the Goodfellow. In addition to the Briarlee various other brands were sold by the company at various times including the Trailblazer, a Pipe by Lee (sold when the company was launched and priced, at $7.50, squarely between the two and three star pipes). There were also a spate of pipes introduced after the transition, about which more later.
Certainly not. What a Briarlee was, quite obviously, was a pipe that didn't make the grade to be a Pipe by Lee, i.e. a starred pipe. That's why they were priced so much lower than the starred pipes: in 1946 the Invincible was $1.50, the Illustrious was $2.50, and upon its introduction the next year the Stroller was priced the same as the Illustrious. If the company could have sold these pipes for the same prices as a lower grade starred pipe it would have. Pipes are like many manufactured items; pricing is a function of yield. The yield for "better" pipes is less, and the price is correspondingly higher. Conversely the yield for "worse" pipes is higher, and they are sold for less.
The company was not named for his dog (he was allergic), or his wife (whose name was Rose); it was a diminutive of his given (or as we called it in the unenlightened days of my youth, Christian) name. The name of the distributor is spelled Stewart-Allen, not Stuart Allen, and they came into the picture later.
Lee advertised and sold two sub brands. One is a Stroller, and if I ever see a good one I’ll buy it. The other is Briarlee, which is my favorite Lee made pipe for this reason:
There was essentially one sub brand as you call it, Briarlee; and under the Briarlee brand several models were introduced over the years, including the Invincible and the Illustrious (sold from the launch of the company onward), the Stroller (introduced the following year, and initially at least distinguished by its hand carved finish), and the Goodfellow. In addition to the Briarlee various other brands were sold by the company at various times including the Trailblazer, a Pipe by Lee (sold when the company was launched and priced, at $7.50, squarely between the two and three star pipes). There were also a spate of pipes introduced after the transition, about which more later.
What a Briarlee was, quite obviously, was a pipe Lee was making for at least a four star or five star grade that didn’t quite make the grade.
Certainly not. What a Briarlee was, quite obviously, was a pipe that didn't make the grade to be a Pipe by Lee, i.e. a starred pipe. That's why they were priced so much lower than the starred pipes: in 1946 the Invincible was $1.50, the Illustrious was $2.50, and upon its introduction the next year the Stroller was priced the same as the Illustrious. If the company could have sold these pipes for the same prices as a lower grade starred pipe it would have. Pipes are like many manufactured items; pricing is a function of yield. The yield for "better" pipes is less, and the price is correspondingly higher. Conversely the yield for "worse" pipes is higher, and they are sold for less.
But there must have been a man making pipes, who marketed them as Star Grade Pipes by Lee. Maybe Lee was his wife, or even his dog, or his dead father’s name. They were distributed by the Stuart Allen Company. But let’s call him Lee.
The company was not named for his dog (he was allergic), or his wife (whose name was Rose); it was a diminutive of his given (or as we called it in the unenlightened days of my youth, Christian) name. The name of the distributor is spelled Stewart-Allen, not Stuart Allen, and they came into the picture later.