Van, wanting something to be so - perhaps it fits in well with the folksy yarn of a tale you want to spin - doesn’t make it so. If you want a fine Lane era Charatan’s Make with an authentic comfort stem - spend the money and buy one. I have three. None owned by Robert Conrad but all very much the real thing. They are fine pipes (but with lousy vulcanite stems). the grain on each is beautiful.
I hope someday we can retrace what ever became of the Charlie Rich looking pipe seller feller down in Springfield who had a young son about our ages, 35 years ago.
Young Charlie only needed a mane of silver hair and a few decades of living to equal his father’s senatorial demeanor and impeccable charm. But we’d watch his father sell those ladies magnificent gifts for the men they loved most and marveled at how he’d lock up the shop along Bloody Glenstone and always go home to Mama.
I’ll bet that boy is really, really proud of his Daddy today.
His Daddy didn’t palm off French Made Charatans with double comfort bits!
The cheapest briars he sold were Savenellies!
Could you imagine if old Charlie had cheated even one of the fancy matrons or their sturdy young sons by peddling them a quasi counterfeit Charatan?
Those boys would hob nob around other boys who had real English made Charatans, and eventually old Charlie would be exposed!
Speaking of Old Charlie, my mother had me practice and practice singing this old Porter Wagoner classic because she wanted it sang at her funeral.
But try as I would I never could perform Charlie’s Picture to her statisfaction.
She said if it saved one fool from his fate it would be worth it all.
My mother hated booze, she surely did.
Simple As I Am LP version
I don’t think a man who has a 100% rating and has sold over 3,400 pipes would cheat an old man like me of $41.
But let’s wait and see, shall we?
And another fact that double comforts me is PK Pipes priced my Charatan’s Make ROSEDALE Estate pipe that is mint but - at $40 and I tried and tried to buy it at $25 and $30 and finally gave up and paid $34 plus shipping and the dad blasted taxes all them gubbermints place on the backs of old men like me.
PK Pipes was proud of it, you know?
