Becker Pipes.new carver, same value?
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Thanks, hadn't known that or seen the blog post about it until you mentioned it.
http://www.smokingpipes.com/smokingpipesblog/single.cfm/post/continuity-from-fritz-federico
I think that's great news. As far as value, according to the blog post, Paolo's son Federico has been making these pipes for years.
http://www.smokingpipes.com/smokingpipesblog/single.cfm/post/continuity-from-fritz-federico
I think that's great news. As far as value, according to the blog post, Paolo's son Federico has been making these pipes for years.
Nothing dropped off when Fritz passed the torch to Paolo. Quite the opposite.
And the fact that he has been making these pipes for a while and the net isn't littered with complaints that their new becker doesn't smoke well is a pretty good indicator things will be alright.
And the fact that he has been making these pipes for a while and the net isn't littered with complaints that their new becker doesn't smoke well is a pretty good indicator things will be alright.
Grenci taught Fritz and Palo about Briar, Palo taught his son, I see the torch being passed on and the flame never going out.
I have a long-time great customer of mine who often traveled to Italy to visit the Becker family. He is, in fact, Federico Becker's godfather. He tells me that Federico and Paolo both were making Becker pipes for the past several years. Some were made completely by Federico and some were made completely by Paolo. Others were made jointly by the two. During the period of Paolo's worsening frailty during his battle with Cancer, Federico did all of the pipe making. So, the only difference in the brand since the death of Paolo is the fact that his son Federico is now making all of the Becker pipes instead of just some of them.
It's good to know more about Becker pipes, but another view is that it doesn't matter, or at least not to me, as Becker makes some of my favorite shapes; what I don't like remains interesting. I've been in love with their sleek bulldogs and rhodesians in all materials, briar, morta, strawberry, especially the last for consistently above average grain.
I can't imagine a distributor would be in the dark at all about this matter. I noticed at least one vendor that seemed to seize upon the notion of "final pipes" to drive sales until it became obvious that the inflow of inventory could no longer be accounted for by a single persons backlog of finished work.
I started this thread because my impression of Becker pipes has changed as result of this news. I hope the young Becker has a chance to stretch his wings a bit rather than copy old designs. Paolo brought innovation with his best pipe shapes.
Grenchi didn't teach them how to make pipes, he taught them how to judge the raw briar for their pipes, they were taught by him to find the best Briar. I believe the New Becker pipes will not be as popular until the young man has made his chops.
I have also noticed some distributors on this side of the pond have increased the prices on Becker pipes, however nothing like this is happening in Europe, especially in Italy, I don't know if the status of the Euro helped but the last Becker I got was nearly half of a similar one from here in the states, I obviously grabbed the one in Italy.
banjo
banjo
I've always wanted a Becker but they're out of my price range,
I hope to find an estate someday.
I think much of the problem was perhaps with retailers over-emphasizing Paolo as the maker, moreso above the Becker brand, because he had rightfully earned a top spot as master pipemaker because he was so incredibly innovative which gave an added cachet in product descriptions.
Becker themselves seemed quite open about it,
this pipe is from 2010:
http://www.beckerpipes.com/en/scheda.php?p_id=635
and they proudly proclaim,
"Made by Federico Becker!"
Was that pipe sold as a Paolo Becker by a retailer?
And if so, would that be a problem?
I do think so myself it would be and ultimately cause some confusion,
and even disgruntled feelings on part of the buyer.
R.D. Field has a good short write up about Federico's involvement...
I hope to find an estate someday.
I think much of the problem was perhaps with retailers over-emphasizing Paolo as the maker, moreso above the Becker brand, because he had rightfully earned a top spot as master pipemaker because he was so incredibly innovative which gave an added cachet in product descriptions.
Becker themselves seemed quite open about it,
this pipe is from 2010:
http://www.beckerpipes.com/en/scheda.php?p_id=635
and they proudly proclaim,
"Made by Federico Becker!"
Was that pipe sold as a Paolo Becker by a retailer?
And if so, would that be a problem?
I do think so myself it would be and ultimately cause some confusion,
and even disgruntled feelings on part of the buyer.
R.D. Field has a good short write up about Federico's involvement...
Guys,
I'm surprised that this subject continues to generate controversy. I've re-read our blogs and newsletters regarding Paolo's passing and Federico's introduction, and I can't quite wrap my head around what we're being accused of.
On the whole, it's worth remembering that Becker is a family brand, a workshop that has traditionally featured the work of a senior Becker acting as master craftsman and a younger Becker acting as apprentice. That was the case with Fritz and Paolo some two decades ago, and we have learned that it was also the case with Paolo and Federico. While it was fairly common knowledge that Federico assisted Paolo, none of us knew exactly what that meant. We never, moreover, pressed our distributor to describe for us exactly what role each Becker had in crafting a particular pipe. The pipes were, simply, Beckers. Following Paolo's death, it was unclear to us what would happen to the brand.
That larger question in doubt, we brought to market the very last pipes that Paolo Becker had a role in crafting as master--that point is indisputable and for some, no doubt, made the pipes more collectible. We were delighted and surprised to learn that Federico himself was ready to take the reins of the family marque. The brand has not been diluted or diminished, it has been invigorated.
I'm surprised that this subject continues to generate controversy. I've re-read our blogs and newsletters regarding Paolo's passing and Federico's introduction, and I can't quite wrap my head around what we're being accused of.
The answer to that question is simply that unlike most of the other pipemakers that we represent we do not have a direct business relationship with Becker. We buy the pipes from a distributor, and in fifteen years of traveling the world visiting pipe makers, Sykes has never once visited the Becker workshop. Nor has anyone else here at Smokingpipes.
On the whole, it's worth remembering that Becker is a family brand, a workshop that has traditionally featured the work of a senior Becker acting as master craftsman and a younger Becker acting as apprentice. That was the case with Fritz and Paolo some two decades ago, and we have learned that it was also the case with Paolo and Federico. While it was fairly common knowledge that Federico assisted Paolo, none of us knew exactly what that meant. We never, moreover, pressed our distributor to describe for us exactly what role each Becker had in crafting a particular pipe. The pipes were, simply, Beckers. Following Paolo's death, it was unclear to us what would happen to the brand.
That larger question in doubt, we brought to market the very last pipes that Paolo Becker had a role in crafting as master--that point is indisputable and for some, no doubt, made the pipes more collectible. We were delighted and surprised to learn that Federico himself was ready to take the reins of the family marque. The brand has not been diluted or diminished, it has been invigorated.
Thanks for the clarification, Soymilkisgood.
On your first point, I don't dispute that many of us have associated, at least for the past twenty years, the Becker brand with Paolo. Would we have spoken and written differently about the marque had we known the degree to which Federico was involved? Yes. But we did not know, so I don't quite think it's fair to fault us on that count. For what it's worth, I remember evaluating a Becker estate pipe a couple years ago and titling it Paolo Becker. Sykes gently corrected me by saying that the brand was not Paolo's but the Becker family's--a point I've encouraged us to remember here.
To your second point, the quotes that you select actually seem to demonstrate my point that we didn't know what would happen to the Becker brand following Paolo's death. I had met Federico Becker, in Chicago 2013 if I recall correctly, but had no idea he was poised to take the reins so quickly. Again, had we known that we'd have certainly written differently about Paolo's passing and the future of tha brand. But on December 18, that future looked awfully uncertain to us, and it seemed an inappropriate time to probe for greater detail.
On your first point, I don't dispute that many of us have associated, at least for the past twenty years, the Becker brand with Paolo. Would we have spoken and written differently about the marque had we known the degree to which Federico was involved? Yes. But we did not know, so I don't quite think it's fair to fault us on that count. For what it's worth, I remember evaluating a Becker estate pipe a couple years ago and titling it Paolo Becker. Sykes gently corrected me by saying that the brand was not Paolo's but the Becker family's--a point I've encouraged us to remember here.
To your second point, the quotes that you select actually seem to demonstrate my point that we didn't know what would happen to the Becker brand following Paolo's death. I had met Federico Becker, in Chicago 2013 if I recall correctly, but had no idea he was poised to take the reins so quickly. Again, had we known that we'd have certainly written differently about Paolo's passing and the future of tha brand. But on December 18, that future looked awfully uncertain to us, and it seemed an inappropriate time to probe for greater detail.
Josh, you posted the following comment a couple of months ago on another thread here. It seemed to say, unequivocally, that the Becker pipes you had in stock were made by Paolo. The more recent blog from smokingpipes.com seems to contradict this and back away from making any definite claim to the actual maker of those pipes. I don't doubt anyone's good intentions, but the post you made does seem unfortunate in retrospect, doesn't it?
Moriarty,
As I've said, if our information had been more complete we'd have certainly written about the brand differently in the wake of Paolo's passing. That includes my forum post. Even in that post, however, you can see that we were making an effort to communicate the transition as clearly as we could. It just turned out that the transition itself was more complicated than we knew. Once we learned that Federico had been more involved in the production of Becker pipes as an apprentice, we made that fact known in Eric's blog post.
On the whole, I'm really not sure there's much more that I can say about the subject. If anyone has particular concerns, please don't hesitate to give me a call (888-366-0345, ex. 126).
As I've said, if our information had been more complete we'd have certainly written about the brand differently in the wake of Paolo's passing. That includes my forum post. Even in that post, however, you can see that we were making an effort to communicate the transition as clearly as we could. It just turned out that the transition itself was more complicated than we knew. Once we learned that Federico had been more involved in the production of Becker pipes as an apprentice, we made that fact known in Eric's blog post.
On the whole, I'm really not sure there's much more that I can say about the subject. If anyone has particular concerns, please don't hesitate to give me a call (888-366-0345, ex. 126).
Here is a Van Gogh painting, well, it was painted by Vincent's cousin, Ernie... I started a whole thread on this a while back, and it makes my blood boil. LINK I have several Beckers, and without that connection to the artist, it is just a hunk of briar in a funny shape. Screw the Becker family. They are just raking in the dough with these impostors. Let his son earn his freaking name like any carver. There are plenty of more affordable pipes for smoking out there that don't cost as much, that smoke way better. Just like those machine made French pipes that Eltang is putting out. F them all. It seems to me that these guys make it big, then capitalize on their laurels by flooding the market with whatever means they can to make as much money by lying to us. Yes, it is nothing less than a lie. Any other explaining away is just putrid puke peddling to justify dishonest marketing.
After this has now been exposed, I'd have to be a complete idiot to pay as much money as they are asking for a Becker ever again. Who really knows who made them? Maybe saying that his son or some other family member is just another lie. Heck, for all we know now, they may have been made in Poland with Nording's pipes. How much further will these lies go? If an artist can't make the pipes them selves, they should have just stopped, or advertised them for what they are.
Prices are assumed to be a demand to supply thing. And, when Becker and Eltang decided to forgo doing the work themselves to up the supply to fool us into paying a ton more for someone else's work, they played us for fools. My suggestion to artists is to be 100% forthcoming. It's not about looks or just smokability or the symbol on a "assumed" hand made, it's about that connection to the artist. Sure, they could have been great pipes, if only they'd have been honest. But, they chose to gouge the system to make as much money as possible. F' them. ...and I rarely ever toss around the f' word.
The whole artisan market just seems too saturated with fraud for me. I will not be spending my money on retail artisans, unless I am having one custom made with an artist that I am in contact with directly. Buying off the shelf is just too risky. I will not be played a fool again.
After this has now been exposed, I'd have to be a complete idiot to pay as much money as they are asking for a Becker ever again. Who really knows who made them? Maybe saying that his son or some other family member is just another lie. Heck, for all we know now, they may have been made in Poland with Nording's pipes. How much further will these lies go? If an artist can't make the pipes them selves, they should have just stopped, or advertised them for what they are.
Prices are assumed to be a demand to supply thing. And, when Becker and Eltang decided to forgo doing the work themselves to up the supply to fool us into paying a ton more for someone else's work, they played us for fools. My suggestion to artists is to be 100% forthcoming. It's not about looks or just smokability or the symbol on a "assumed" hand made, it's about that connection to the artist. Sure, they could have been great pipes, if only they'd have been honest. But, they chose to gouge the system to make as much money as possible. F' them. ...and I rarely ever toss around the f' word.
The whole artisan market just seems too saturated with fraud for me. I will not be spending my money on retail artisans, unless I am having one custom made with an artist that I am in contact with directly. Buying off the shelf is just too risky. I will not be played a fool again.
Sorry, he was mentioned in that other thread, and since then there was another thread where he was outed for having his pipes made by a French company, Chacom of BC. I cant remember which. But, he doesn't touch his pipes, apparently. But, he has them stamped and charges handmade top end artist prices. There is so much fraud in the artisan pipe world, that I'd only deal directly with the makers.
My new guidelines are that no pipe is worth over $300, except for artisan mades where I deal directly with the maker. The rest is a fools gamble, IMO. However, everyone else can do as they please. It's your money.
My new guidelines are that no pipe is worth over $300, except for artisan mades where I deal directly with the maker. The rest is a fools gamble, IMO. However, everyone else can do as they please. It's your money.
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