A Fistful of Crud

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woodsroad

Lifer
Oct 10, 2013
11,585
15,264
SE PA USA
If that is the state of the chamber, I’d check out the shank and mortise

My experience with estates is that the bowl and stem can look pristine but the airways can be full of crud
The mortise is jammed full. The stem will not seat all the way. Easily cleaned with dental picks, q-tips, pipe cleaners and the 5 gallon drum of absolute alcohol.
 

Epip Oc'Cabot

Can't Leave
Oct 11, 2019
435
1,179
Yep. One of the side benefits of living in LA is that a lot of personal possessions of celebrities end up being circulated. The Hitchcock estate sold off a lot of Hitchcock's pipes to Gus' Smoke Shop and I happened to walk in as they were bringing in from rear, boxes of pipes for sorting. Being a regular customer, and having bought my William Conrad Charatans from them, I was welcomed to go through the boxes to see if there was anything I might like. There were two boxes filled with piles of Hitchcock's pipes, all Dunhills, all about group 3, all bents and mostly Dublins. All of them were incredibly filthy and the cake had hardened into something approaching concrete.
Interesting! It IS logical that a lot of celebrity’s pipe WOULD end up circulating in LA, even though I never thought much about that before.

I always imagined it would be fun to own one of William Conrad’s pipes.
 

hawky454

Lifer
Feb 11, 2016
5,338
10,220
Austin, TX
Yep. One of the side benefits of living in LA is that a lot of personal possessions of celebrities end up being circulated. The Hitchcock estate sold off a lot of Hitchcock's pipes to Gus' Smoke Shop and I happened to walk in as they were bringing in from rear, boxes of pipes for sorting. Being a regular customer, and having bought my William Conrad Charatans from them, I was welcomed to go through the boxes to see if there was anything I might like. There were two boxes filled with piles of Hitchcock's pipes, all Dunhills, all about group 3, all bents and mostly Dublins. All of them were incredibly filthy and the cake had hardened into something approaching concrete.
That’s really cool! Did they tend to charge a lot more for estate pipes that were previously owned by the famous? I imagine you had a good relationship with the folks at the shop. I would think, filthy pipes or not, they could get good prices on those pieces.

Do you mind posting a picture or two of your Hitchcock pipes?
 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,625
44,844
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
That’s really cool! Did they tend to charge a lot more for estate pipes that were previously owned by the famous? I imagine you had a good relationship with the folks at the shop. I would think, filthy pipes or not, they could get good prices on those pieces.

Do you mind posting a picture or two of your Hitchcock pipes?
No, they didn't charge extra because someone famous had owned the pipe. It wasn't a thing back then. Nobody cared. It's like the market for "vintage" tobacco. 10 years ago it was being offered at a fraction of new, not multiples of new. it was "old" tobacco, not "vintage" tobacco.

Time is insanely tight and will stay that way until July. If I have an opportunity to fish one out I'll post it.