1987 Robert L Marx Freehand Commemoratives

[Briar Lee]

The price was $150 for both, which arrived carefully smoked, from New York, immaculately cleaned, with a double copy of a Robert L Marx signed folio in an age yellowed plastic sleeve.

Geeezus. These aren’t fakes. Nobody faked a Marx pipe in 1987. No one but Bob Marx had this stamp commissioned:



Robert L Marx began Marxman at age 29 and sold out before he was 50.

And in 1987, he claimed to have invented the freehand pipe in 1937, and he made at least 30 examples.

He’d have been about 83.

He even had a new commemorative 50 year stamp made, which the large tan pipe has, and the smaller stained pipe does not. Both have a Robert L Marx signature stamp. The stems are modern, from 1987. Somebody lovingly smoked them both.

I’m asking the seller where she got these from.

These look like Bob himself kept these back as souvenirs.

At the pipe shows, Bob Marx smoked these and displayed that yellowed card. Neither of his pipes had numbers. The customer got a numbered pipe with a matching number autographed folio.

He sat there at his table at pipe shows, and told the story about creating the freehand pipe in 1937, and peddled these. These were demonstrators. The large tan one is to show the rough finished pipe, and the stained carved one is what the customer got, each serialed.

What else makes sense?

 

[Merton]

Beautiful and unique freehands. I think that Salvador Dali's face appears in the grain on the unstained pipe...

 

[Briar Lee]

I’m smoking the large unstained pipe first filled with Holiday match blend.

It weighs 120 grams, the stained one 75 grams, and a huge C sized Marxman I had handy weighed 60 grams.

Growth rings on the natural pipe are just impossibly small. There’s no guessing how large and how old the burl was this was cut from. All the carefully made cake came off, easily. Although this is the largest ad heaviest pipe I own it feels light and balanced when clenched.

Almost all of the heat is absorbed by the huge pipe and it barely gets warm while smoked.

Just one bowl noticeably darkened the pipe exactly like the other higher end Marxman pipes I own. This thing is as porous as a sponge.

This is ancient Algerian briar. This was made by Bob Marx from the best of the best of his stash of briar.

I’ll bet this was one of the pipes carved from ancient burls that launched the 400 series in 1937.

This also solves another mystery I had.

Marx had to require gloves for workers to produce the classic tan Algerian briar colored pipes he made.

My unstained pipe colored so much from one smoke I applied food grade grapeseed oil. The stain on lower grade Marxman pipes is merely one light coat of oil, perhaps with a reddish dye.

This is just one application of oil.



All high condition pre 54 Marxman pipes are the most delicious smokers imaginable.

They’ll spoil you for anything else.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

The pipes are yours to do with as you wish, but it made me sad to see you apply oil to the unstained pipe and alter it from its original state after surviving thirty-six years as it was intended.

 

[Puffaluffaguss]

@TheIronMonkey is correct although it is because i prefer unstained pipes to remain uncolored other then by tobacco tar . But they are very nice pipes and as long as they stay in the fam it won't make 1 iota of a difference. Very rare pipes that will bring much enjoyment upon yourself my friend, enjoy.

 

[Briar Lee]

The pipes are yours to do with as you wish, but it made me sad to see you apply oil to the unstained pipe and alter it from its original state after surviving thirty-six years as it was intended.

Me too, but I’d stained it all over by just handling it without gloves. It definitely was a demonstrator pipe, not quite finished, and left natural.


What a mystery about Marx in 1987 making up 50 year freehand commemoratives!

The age yellowed folio sleeve is what is still commonly sold to make desk placards at business meetings. The folio looks typed by an old IBM Selectric ball typewriter using their cursive ball (I still have one). My folio is a photocopy. My larger pipe has a number (30?) scratched off. There is no carving on it.

The finished pipe is not numbered, and looks like it was smoked once. It’s way off center drilled,,,,on purpose. This one used a block Marx thought needed it done that way.

Both pipes look to use a generic hard cast shiny Danish freehand stem, and are modern.

If these had been Danish freehands they’d made magnificent straight grains.
But Marx didn’t leave the rough outside grain on top, and at the end of the stem.

Marx took a large block of briar cut from such a large burl, the entirety of one side was neatly flat, and in the rough.and then he worked the inside on a sander cross grained.

But those were the 1987 pipes.

What did he make in 1937 he claimed to make a freehand?

 

[TheIronMonkey]

Me too, but I’d stained it all over by just handling it without gloves. It definitely was a demonstrator pipe, not quite finished, and left natural.


What a mystery about Marx in 1987 making up 50 year freehand commemoratives!

The age yellowed folio sleeve is what is still commonly sold to make desk placards at business meetings. The folio looks typed by an old IBM Selectric ball typewriter using their cursive ball (I still have one). My folio is a photocopy. My larger pipe has a number (30?) scratched off. There is no carving on it.

The finished pipe is not numbered, and looks like it was smoked once. It’s way off center drilled,,,,on purpose. This one used a block Marx thought needed it done that way.

Both pipes look to use a generic hard cast shiny Danish freehand stem, and are modern.

If these had been Danish freehands they’d made magnificent straight grains.
But Marx didn’t leave the rough outside grain on top, and at the end of the stem.

Marx took a large block of briar cut from such a large burl, the entirety of one side was neatly flat, and in the rough.and then he worked the inside on a sander cross grained.

But those were the 1987 pipes.

What did he make in 1937 he claimed to make a freehand?

For future reference, you can lift some finger oils from unfinished briar with Everclear.

 

[Briar Lee]

The finished pipe is as delicious to smoke as the larger, unfinished pipe.

The quality (not beauty) of the briar used in a pipe is the sole factor as to how well it will smoke.

Men like Bob Marx knew, somehow, which briar smoked beyond perfection.

Every still high condition Pre 54 Marxman smokes like you’re already past Heaven’s Gate.

This one is also beautiful, but that’s a bonus.

 

[telescopes]

For future reference, you can lift some finger oils from unfinished briar with Everclear.

@Briar Lee

I agree. Van, removing varnish off a cheap Ebay pipe or applying oil on a cheap pipe is one thing. On a truly historic artifact that would be of interest to future collectors…. ?

 

[telescopes]

The price was $150 for both, which arrived carefully smoked, from New York, immaculately cleaned, with a double copy of a Robert L Marx signed folio in an age yellowed plastic sleeve.

Geeezus. These aren’t fakes. Nobody faked a Marx pipe in 1987. No one but Bob Marx had this stamp commissioned:

View attachment 253406

Robert L Marx began Marxman at age 29 and sold out before he was 50.

And in 1987, he claimed to have invented the freehand pipe in 1937, and he made at least 30 examples.

He’d have been about 83.

He even had a new commemorative 50 year stamp made, which the large tan pipe has, and the smaller stained pipe does not. Both have a Robert L Marx signature stamp. The stems are modern, from 1987. Somebody lovingly smoked them both.

I’m asking the seller where she got these from.

These look like Bob himself kept these back as souvenirs.

At the pipe shows, Bob Marx smoked these and displayed that yellowed card. Neither of his pipes had numbers. The customer got a numbered pipe with a matching number autographed folio.

He sat there at his table at pipe shows, and told the story about creating the freehand pipe in 1937, and peddled these. These were demonstrators. The large tan one is to show the rough finished pipe, and the stained carved one is what the customer got, each serialed.

What else makes sense?


View attachment 253410
View attachment 253395

View attachment 253400View attachment 253401View attachment 253402View attachment 253403View attachment 253404View attachment 253405

This is a great find. Way to go.

 

[Briar Lee]

@Briar Lee

I agree. Van, removing varnish off a cheap Ebay pipe or applying oil on a cheap pipe is one thing. On a truly historic artifact that would be of interest to future collectors…. ?

Marx himself added oil and polished the 1987 Freehand series.

Look here.


The bore on all Benchmade Marxman C pipes and the 1987 Freehands seems the same .850”. They also were about the same height. The B size had a .775” bore.

The $7.50 B size, and the $10 C size, started life as a big plateaux cut of briar. They all seem made freehand and cut cross grain.

But the big boys that usually had saddle stems had a much larger bore. The D size was .880” bore.




Marx was essentially operating a production pipe company where the best and largest blocks of briar were all 400 attempts, and failing that a $15 D, or something less with a .880” size bore.

Smoke a Marxman enough and it turns black.


The pipe world needs some more Algerian briar that Marx used.


It’s still there. It’s the getting it.

 

[telescopes]

Marx himself added oil and polished the 1987 Freehand series.

Look here.

View attachment 253541
The bore on all Benchmade Marxman C pipes and the 1987 Freehands seems the same .850”. They also were about the same height. The B size had a .775” bore.

The $7.50 B size, and the $10 C size, started life as a big plateaux cut of briar. They all seem made freehand and cut cross grain.

But the big boys that usually had saddle stems had a much larger bore. The D size was .880” bore.

View attachment 253542


Marx was essentially operating a production pipe company where the best and largest blocks of briar were all 400 attempts, and failing that a $15 D, or something less with a .880” size bore.

Smoke a Marxman enough and it turns black.


The pipe world needs some more Algerian briar that Marx used.


It’s still there. It’s the getting it.

You know what you did! Regardless… congratulations on the acquisition. That’s a piece of history.

 

[Tate]

Amazing stuff man!! Happy they smoke well! Awesome piece of history!

 

[didimauw]

You know what you did! Regardless… congratulations on the acquisition. That’s a piece of history.

Googling "crazy steel wool pictures" Didn't find what I wanted, but this is cool!
But you get the point.

 

[telescopes]

View attachment 253603

Googling "crazy steel wool pictures" Didn't find what I wanted, but this is cool!
But you get the point.

I have nothing but respect for Van, but I would I would have to object if he were nominated to be the curator of the Louvre. I can see him improving the Mona Lisa by steel wooling some varnish off the canvas.

 

[Cloozoe]

"And in 1987, he claimed to have invented the freehand pipe in 1937..."

My father-in-law claimed to have invented meatball pizza. And fried clams.

 

[telescopes]

We’ve often discussed the possibility that Marx was the first to commercially market freehand pipes. He seemed comfortable doing what was needed and breaking the rules. His many crazy looking pipes from the late 30s onward are testament to his Proclamation

 

[Cloozoe]

I'm new here and missed that. "Commercially market(ed)", perhaps, if expanded to "commercially marketed in the 20th century"; or "commercially marketed before the Danes". "Invented"? Absurd, since all the pipes since the advent of tobacco smoking were "freehand" for centuries.

 

[telescopes]

I'm new here and missed that. "Commercially market(ed)", perhaps, if expanded to "commercially marketed in the 20th century"; or "commercially marketed before the Danes". "Invented"? Absurd, since all the pipes since the advent of tobacco smoking were "freehand" for centuries.

Marx made many pipes that simply didn’t follow any rules regarding standardized shape and marked them commercially as such with words such as Benchmade and jumbo. He had a line that followed the standard shapes as well, but somewhere decided to let the carvers have at it. This was elk before the Danes. Free hand is not a term used to describe method as much as adherence to standard shapes. I am not sure why that would be considered absurd?

 

[telescopes]

@Briar Lee , I ran into a seller at the Las Vegas Pipe Show who had a suitcase full of The Four Hundred Pipes. Surprisingly, not all of them were giants. I think my Royal might have actually been a failed Four Hundred attempt. It looks like my 400 but only smaller.