Connoisseur Pipes - Ed Burak

[denholrl]

I've been a collector of Ed Burak's Connoisseur pipes for about twenty years. Any other Connoisseur collectors out there? I'd like to chat.
Rob Denholtz

Carpinteria, CA

 

[mjtannen]

I'm not a collector of them, however, I'm happy to say I have one. I purchased it from Ed personally when his shop was located on 47th St. in NYC. He has since retired from a much smaller location on the underground concourse level of an office tower building on Ave of the Americas at 53rd St.

 

[puffintuff]

No, but I'd like to see some photos if you can post them.

 

[hobie1dog]

 

[seakayak]

Me too. I've been a collector/smoker for the past 40 years and can't remember ever seeing an Ed Burak.

 

[viceroy]

damn, i was just in New York and failed to hear about this shop in time. gah, i would have liked to see and meet a pipe maker

 

[jcsnaps]

It seems Ed has retired, but someone in NJ has a bunch of his pipes and lists them on Ebay regularly. All new unsmoked stock. Nice pipes, but they can get kinda pricey.

 

[mjtannen]

Ed Burak's successor has maintained the Connoisseur name and has a website for the sale of pipes. Tobacco blends have been discontinued.

 

[recoilrob]

As the OP can probably attest to, Ed never made many of his own pipes, he was the designer but the pipes were actually made by a gentleman from NJ.
Rob,
I just found a bunch of Scottish ribbon and Turkish Black in my cellar!
Rob I

 

[pauls]

I have owned a couple over the years, in fact I bought one from Denholrl about a year ago, nice pipes and beautiful designs but I haven't found one I liked to smoke.

 

[mjtannen]

For many years, Ed Burak had a standing advertisement in the NY Times. It was the image of an oom paul pipe which became his trademark.

 

[banjobob]

I just got one in the mail today.

It has his name on the right top side,

and Connoisseur N.Y.C on the left.

It's a 1/4 bent bulldog that looks like new but has been smoked.

I found this site and joined after doing a Google search that found this thread.

David/BanjoBob

 

[hobie1dog]

Welcome David to the forum...post up a pic of that pipe for us.

 

[pitchfork]

I've been a collector of Ed Burak's Connoisseur pipes for about twenty years. Any other Connoisseur collectors out there? I'd like to chat.

bump.
I'd love to hear more stories, lore and anecdotes about this storied pipe merchant. I've heard people refer to him as a bit of a "character."

 

[ssjones]

Lets get some pix up on this thread!

 

[ssjones]

5 pipes currently on Ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Burak+Connoisseur&_sacat=4118&_odkw=Ed+Burak%27s+Connoisseur&_osacat=4118

 

[pitchfork]

This pic won't last forever, but how's that for a stack billiard?

 

[pitchfork]

How's this for a jaw-hanger?

 

[pitchfork]

Sorry about the giant pic size, but here's a great French pipe site that has tons of pics of Burak pipes (you can use Google translator if you don't know French).
http://www.fumeursdepipe.net/pipiersBburak.htm

 

[pitchfork]

Here's a nice blog post about Burak and his pipes. Maybe by a Forum regular?
http://awfulrowing.wordpress.com/2010/01/17/a-belated-epitaph-for-connoisseur-pipes/