Looking to add a commissioned Cooke to my collection, but am curious about the pricing. Are we talking like $300-$500 or towards $1000 plus? Any feedback on Cooke pipes and pictures would be great, thanks!
JT Cooke Pipes
- Thread starter North Pole piper
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You would be hard pressed to find an estate JT Cooke under $500.00, I can’t speak as to his commission prices though.
Cooke’s commissions go for around $800.
At one point, Cookes ran about 800 USD, I dunno now. And you'll wait. Worth it? I know guys who think so - I have long talks at pipe shows when someone shows up with a bag full of pipes from any particular maker, I want to know what it is they like so much. Big positives on Cooke pipes are that they smoke phenomenal, his proprietary curing and engineering assure it. They look amazing, he's a total nut for blasting. The downsides (or potential downsides) are that he makes a very unusual stem, on purpose, and most of his pipes are very very big. But he's a cool dude, a gnarly old fucker, to use his own terms, and a living legend, so I mean...
Very fascinating blasts. Never had one of his pipes but hopefully sometime in the future. When he posts new pipes on his site they sell in a matter of minutes. Good luck finding what you are looking for and please post about the progress.
Not anymore.
He went under the knife and got both age roll-back surgery AND a sex change (!) a couple months ago.
Here he is at Steve Norse's Christmas party last week:
I had heard you can get 20/20 vision back with cataract surgery, but this is something else!
Please can you elaborate? I know he casts his own acrylics but that's about it.
Best is just look at pics on the net, but they are "clunky" compared to most artisanal stems, very broad, very flat, and rounded off everywhere, no sharp edges (which is good for comfort). But where most artisans are shooting for something thin, fine, and technically really crisp, Cooke's just don't look like that, he's got his own thing going. I am assured that he is quite capable of doing traditional stem work at a very high level - the stems he makes are absolutely by choice. And that's what's so great about hand made pipes, you can buy the same Savinelli at every store, but the fun little differences in how stems are cut, how chambers are shaped, airway sizes, briar sources, curing methods etc in the artisan community really make it special (for a certain type of collector. Other guys just want smoke from a pipe and that's fine too).
And for the customer, this knowledge-seeking, poking around and finding out what's what about pipe makers is important. If all you care about is a tiny little perfect-to-the-micron mouthpiece then maybe Abe Herbaugh is going to be a better bet for you than Cooke. If you want a sandblast that took 3 days and looks like nothing else on this earth, you go to Cooke.
If you just want a nice smoking pipe, by a Castello.
Look at Jose Rubio as an alternative. Very deep blast, very good stem work that is easy to clinch and near perfect fit and finish. $500 or less lands it at your door. Here are two of my favorites.
New, he's about $800 and up, but not much more. His pipes do sell really quick when listed on his site, but look through the gallery there, and if you see something you like, he'll do it on commission. His stems are not wafer thin at all, but I still like the feel in the mouth. Being acrylic, and he makes the rods himself, an upside is they won't ever oxidize. They do seem to hold their value if you ever go to resell them, sometimes going for as much used, as they would cost new. If you do go the commission route, you can request the shape, the color stain, and the stem material, but he won't entertain much else as far as changing shapes or proportion, although you can tell him size. He used to make a lot more magnum sized pipes, and will still when asked, but today they mostly fall in the average range, like roughly 5.5" length and 3/4" inside chamber diameter. I'd say they're full size, but not really big unless you want to find one bigger. Not sure exactly, but my guess for a magnum is around $1100 or more. Shape-wise I'd call his work slightly playful variations of traditional shapes...like riffs on Dunhills, which BTW he cut his teeth on, doing repairs on before he got into making his own pipes. He's been making them for probably 30 years, and his craftsmanship and drilling are never off, at least not on any I've seen. For as long as he's been making them and for the quality and time that goes into each pipe, I think they're a relative value. Yeah, it is a lot to spend on a single pipe but conversely look at what a lot of carvers charge after being in the game for only a few years.
Great looking pipes! I love the Hawkbill. I will check out Rubio, thanks.
Thanks. I'll have to pay more attention to the pictures. The only thing I own that is made by JT Cooke is one of his replacement stems, which has a perfectly nice conventional bit. I'm not a clencher so bit work is not something I worry about terribly though I appreciate the art and so long as it doesn't impede the flow of the smoke. After all, I'm perfectly happy with my fat Castello bit with the funky rectangular funnel/cave that hides the orific opening.
Last time I looked at Cooke's (3-4 years ago) the asking price for his commissions was $800 and up.
Cookes pipes sell for 900 plus and they are sold out in 2 minutes or less. A pipe friend whose tastes I respect told me I would hate hi stems and would not like his pipes at all. I took his advice and took Cooks pipes off my list of artisans I wanted to try.
I have also seen his estate pipes sell for more than his new ones.
I have also seen his estate pipes sell for more than his new ones.