Anyone smoking an E. Wilkes pipe?

[hoppes]

Was trolling the Internet this past week and found an E.Wilkes pipe. For twenty bucks I thought it might be a good investment. Searched the web and found most of the history of E.Wilke and company. According to several comments the stamp E.Wilke NYC was used on pipes up to the 1950's. Apparently these were left completely unfinished with not even wax applied. This one had a coating of something that was quite difficult to remove. With a little cleaning and polishing it seems to be a usable pipe. Anyone smoking this brand ? Would appreciate any further history and comments as to when and who may have made this. Since it cleaned up fairly well I am not going to add any wax or other finish. Everytime you pick it up, the oils from your fingers will provide a suitable coating. Thanks, Hoppes

 

[jaygreen55]

The Wilke shop was around the corner from my office and located on 47th street and Madison Avenue in NYC. They were in business at that location from the 1950s until 1981 when they merged with Eliot Nachwalter's Pipeworks to form Pipeworks & Wilke which is still in business run by Carole Burns selling some of the finest bulk tobacco and estate pipes out of Montpelier Vermont. Elliot still makes (very expensive)pipes out of a studio in Southern Vermont. At the time I was doing business with them most of their pipes were made by 2 local pipemakers Joe Corteggiano and Tommy Passano who also did the carving for Ed Burak at the Connoisseur pipe shop a couple blocks away
The pipes I bought from them were unstained natural Algerian or Greek briar but were definitely shined up with a coating of wax
At 20 bucks you got yourself quite a deal depending on the condition it was in. It should be a great smoker That billiard was their signature shape. I have one just like it
Here's a link to Pipeworks & Wilke. You can buy some of the classic Wilke blends to put in your classic Wilke pipe. Do it soon because Carole is retiring from the tobacco part of her business
http://vtpipes.com/index.html

 

[jpmcwjr]

Loved that shop! I have one of theirs I bought in the mid 60's. Nomenclature is all but gone. It, too, was a 'natural' finish, and is now a glowing dark brown.

 

[dcrguns]

I have one almost exactly like yours. Got it direct from Carole a couple of years ago. It had hardly been smoked and it is a great pipe for the money. I think I paid around $75.00 for mine.

 

[fnord]

I just sent Miss Carole an email a few minutes ago asking if she had anything comparable to DH NC.
I smoke one of her ex-husband's pipes in my weekly rotation and I damn well want to smoke one of her/his blends before the close.
I'm a sentimentalist like that....
Fnord

 

[foggymountain]

A friend and I used to hang out at the Wilke Pipe Shop in the 1950s. Two daughters of the founder ran the business. They were like our grandmothers. The pipes were of varying quality, usually priced according to the grain. But there were errors I bought a bent apple with a perfect flame grain around the entire bowl for $20. It is the best smoking pipe I have ever had. Still have it, but now it is oversmoked, so I just use it a few times a year. Others were not as good. I bought a new Wilke from the current company a few years ago and it was terrible. She waxed the pipe, which ruined it. The original Wilkes had absolutely no finish at all. That was their defining feature.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Foggy-
Agree entirely.
Somewhere in NYC a pipe shop had a sign up saying "Don't smoke paint" (or varnish) and logically it would fit with the Wilke shop, though Carole doesn't recall it. Do you recall such there or anywhere?

 

[jaygreen55]

That might have been at Ed Burak's Connoisseur pipe shop. He also sold natural unstained pipes and used the same craftsmen (Joe Cortegiano and Tony Passano) to carve them. They were a block apart until the 1980s