Jon,
Can you elaborate ?
So it was not George, but Gaston ( real Flemish name ) and was André the last mr. Huybrecht ?
G. Huybrecht Pipe
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Can you elaborate ?
So it was not George, but Gaston ( real Flemish name ) and was André the last mr. Huybrecht ?
When I think about it, I think your pipe is a Mike B. finished one because of the GH stamp and the pipe sent to America where they love stamps.
GH supplied retrailers in both UK and elsewhere. ( I got an unsmoked from India once)
Here are some names from his stamps.
Georgopulo / New York . A Garfinkel. A Botibol & Co.
Abercrombie & Fitch. Bewlay. Brumfit, London. Fox.
G Smith & Sons. GDE Graff & Sons, Holland. H.A. & E.
Smith, Bermuda. Notaras 84 Piccadilly. Sautter. Selfridge London. Shervingtons. Weingott.
I know most of the UK names.
His "own " pipes were named London Castle and Dulwich.
Mr Hacker and Pipes2smoke seems to me to be storytellers.
GH supplied retrailers in both UK and elsewhere. ( I got an unsmoked from India once)
Here are some names from his stamps.
Georgopulo / New York . A Garfinkel. A Botibol & Co.
Abercrombie & Fitch. Bewlay. Brumfit, London. Fox.
G Smith & Sons. GDE Graff & Sons, Holland. H.A. & E.
Smith, Bermuda. Notaras 84 Piccadilly. Sautter. Selfridge London. Shervingtons. Weingott.
I know most of the UK names.
His "own " pipes were named London Castle and Dulwich.
Mr Hacker and Pipes2smoke seems to me to be storytellers.
Thank you Jensen.
As said; I'm perfectly fine with that, I'm stubborn and still consider my pipe to be a genuine Huybrecht one
Since it is also stamped London Castle.
MB is a fine craftsman !
There's so many people telling baloney .
Two of my pipes are stamped Dulwich Quaint and London Castle without the GH Stamp .
You consider these "his own "pipes ?
As said; I'm perfectly fine with that, I'm stubborn and still consider my pipe to be a genuine Huybrecht one
Since it is also stamped London Castle.
MB is a fine craftsman !
There's so many people telling baloney .
Two of my pipes are stamped Dulwich Quaint and London Castle without the GH Stamp .
You consider these "his own "pipes ?
Orlando, glad to. I’m out tonight but will jot down a brief summary tomorrow. Jon
I also have a dulwich quaint. I once asked Jensen about selling it and he told me off. Haha enjoy your beautiful pipe man
Thank you dude, I sure will.
Shipping from the Us is exceedingly slow now, cannot wait to see it in real.
Huybrecht Dulwich straight grain with one tiny sandpit ; lovely, not ?
Stem not yet polished.
:
Stem not yet polished.
:
This was a very dirty pipe and the rim needed some extra tlc too.
I hope it can meet yout approval .
It is my friend who makes the photo's with her smartphone, I feel very grateful to her .
She apologizes for the spots where the light reflects on the pipe.
Told me she can do much better ( amongst so many other jobs, she is also a photographer ) but she needed to dash
I belief the pics. look good .
I hope it can meet yout approval .
It is my friend who makes the photo's with her smartphone, I feel very grateful to her .
She apologizes for the spots where the light reflects on the pipe.
Told me she can do much better ( amongst so many other jobs, she is also a photographer ) but she needed to dash
I belief the pics. look good .
Here’s my dulwich quaint 103. Easily the largest and most daunting pipe I have.
Hi Roland,
My apologies for the lengthy delay; travel, IT problems, and a holiday intervened.
My research is decidedly on the sparse side, but such as it is it suggests that Gaston Huybrechts was born in Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France on December 25, 1893. He apparently came to England some time after the end of WW1 and formed a long-lasting partnership with M. Davies, making and selling pipes and tobacco sundries as Davies & Huybrechts Ltd from the mid 1920s through the mid 1930s (the company was struck off the register in 1938). Who exactly Davies was is a bit of a mystery to me, although I suspect he was associated with another business called M. & L. Davies Ltd located at 10 Christopher Street in London, engaged in the importation of fancy goods in 1924. Gaston evidently spent at least some time traveling for the firm since he appears in Canada in February of 1933 as a sales representative of Davies & Huybrechts. (Incidentally there were Huybrechts who settled in Canada in 1905 who were almost certainly relatives of Gaston's).
After the dissolution of the firm in 1938 it's not clear who Gaston worked for. In the 1939 census substitute he's listed as a commercial traveller (i.e. salesman), but since there are no business listings under his own name in the phone books of the time I'm inclined to believe he worked for one of the other pipe manufacturers, although of course it's possible that he was making and selling pipes to shops on his own. But if that was the case I'm skeptical he'd call himself a commercial traveller, which generally indicates a travelling salesman employed by a decent sized firm. Pure speculation of course.
"G Huybrecht" doesn’t show up in phone books until about 1950, so it leaves about a dozen year gap to speculate what Gaston was doing during that time. If he was in the armed forces, unlikely but not impossible given his age, there would be records. I suspect he worked at his trade as best he could, using connections within the fraternity of pipe makers to keep busy as briar grew scarce and facilities were repurposed to support the war effort. Reconversion of course took several years after the war ended, and it makes sense that it would be the late forties before Gaston could get the briar and the financial wherewithal to strike out on his own, and maybe another year or two to get a phone listing in the dismal economy that was post-war Britain. Again, all speculation. What's not speculation is that Gaston continued to make pipes from that point for the rest of his life, before dying in London on October 7, 1974.
Gaston married twice: in 1923 to Marthe Alphonsine Dumas (1895-1961), and after Marthe's death he married Josephine Clementine Ogier (1894-1977) in 1965. By his marriage to Marthe Gaston had two children, a son named Andre Ernest (1923-1997) who sometimes went by Andrew, and a daughter named Yvonne Felicie (1924-2005).
Gaston's will contains a provision which strongly suggests that his son Andre inherited and took over the business. From what I can tell Andre operated it, under the G Huybrecht name, until his own death in 1997. As far as I know there was no further successor after Andre (perhaps one of you know one?). Certainly Andre's death is about when existing inventory was purchased, presumably from Andre’s widow Jacqueline, and sent to guys like Mike at Blakemar for stemming and eventual sale.
As a final comment I'd add that Andre had two sons, whose names I withhold here for reasons of privacy, But the point is obviously that if anyone is very interested indeed in the history of Huybrechts pipes I'm quite sure that living memory would fill many gaps and correct many erroneous suppositions.
Best, Jon
My apologies for the lengthy delay; travel, IT problems, and a holiday intervened.
My research is decidedly on the sparse side, but such as it is it suggests that Gaston Huybrechts was born in Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France on December 25, 1893. He apparently came to England some time after the end of WW1 and formed a long-lasting partnership with M. Davies, making and selling pipes and tobacco sundries as Davies & Huybrechts Ltd from the mid 1920s through the mid 1930s (the company was struck off the register in 1938). Who exactly Davies was is a bit of a mystery to me, although I suspect he was associated with another business called M. & L. Davies Ltd located at 10 Christopher Street in London, engaged in the importation of fancy goods in 1924. Gaston evidently spent at least some time traveling for the firm since he appears in Canada in February of 1933 as a sales representative of Davies & Huybrechts. (Incidentally there were Huybrechts who settled in Canada in 1905 who were almost certainly relatives of Gaston's).
After the dissolution of the firm in 1938 it's not clear who Gaston worked for. In the 1939 census substitute he's listed as a commercial traveller (i.e. salesman), but since there are no business listings under his own name in the phone books of the time I'm inclined to believe he worked for one of the other pipe manufacturers, although of course it's possible that he was making and selling pipes to shops on his own. But if that was the case I'm skeptical he'd call himself a commercial traveller, which generally indicates a travelling salesman employed by a decent sized firm. Pure speculation of course.
"G Huybrecht" doesn’t show up in phone books until about 1950, so it leaves about a dozen year gap to speculate what Gaston was doing during that time. If he was in the armed forces, unlikely but not impossible given his age, there would be records. I suspect he worked at his trade as best he could, using connections within the fraternity of pipe makers to keep busy as briar grew scarce and facilities were repurposed to support the war effort. Reconversion of course took several years after the war ended, and it makes sense that it would be the late forties before Gaston could get the briar and the financial wherewithal to strike out on his own, and maybe another year or two to get a phone listing in the dismal economy that was post-war Britain. Again, all speculation. What's not speculation is that Gaston continued to make pipes from that point for the rest of his life, before dying in London on October 7, 1974.
Gaston married twice: in 1923 to Marthe Alphonsine Dumas (1895-1961), and after Marthe's death he married Josephine Clementine Ogier (1894-1977) in 1965. By his marriage to Marthe Gaston had two children, a son named Andre Ernest (1923-1997) who sometimes went by Andrew, and a daughter named Yvonne Felicie (1924-2005).
Gaston's will contains a provision which strongly suggests that his son Andre inherited and took over the business. From what I can tell Andre operated it, under the G Huybrecht name, until his own death in 1997. As far as I know there was no further successor after Andre (perhaps one of you know one?). Certainly Andre's death is about when existing inventory was purchased, presumably from Andre’s widow Jacqueline, and sent to guys like Mike at Blakemar for stemming and eventual sale.
As a final comment I'd add that Andre had two sons, whose names I withhold here for reasons of privacy, But the point is obviously that if anyone is very interested indeed in the history of Huybrechts pipes I'm quite sure that living memory would fill many gaps and correct many erroneous suppositions.
Best, Jon
I'm a nic-wimp. If I smoked warhorse all day I wouldn't be making up, I'd be throwing up.
Great background, Jon!
This is my G. Huybrecht/London Castle pipe, with a dark reddish stain, which I purchased from Max Engel at a Chicago Show about 12 years ago. It is marked G. Huybrecht, in script, on the other side of the shank.
It is a very finer smoker, and is often in my rotation.
This is my G. Huybrecht/London Castle pipe, with a dark reddish stain, which I purchased from Max Engel at a Chicago Show about 12 years ago. It is marked G. Huybrecht, in script, on the other side of the shank.
It is a very finer smoker, and is often in my rotation.
Thank you Jon,it is much appreciated .
I looked forward to reading the story and it was worth the minor delay
This was not jotted down in two minutes, not ?
Never smoked War Horse, the reviews are promissing and I will order soon as back in stock.
No, I aim for brevity and almost always fall short of the mark. Since I enjoy doing this kind of thing I find before I know it I've amassed much more information than most sane people would care to know about the subject in question.
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