Limited Edition Lee Star Grades

[Briar Lee]

One of the sheer joys of accumulating dozens of Pipes by Lee is none are exactly the same.

Those two $10 Three Star medium slim Billiards are close to the same, but each one had to have been hand finished to a pattern, after initial machine fraising.

I broke both those pipes in, and it was a joy and privilege to do it.

That slim medium Billiard shape was extremely popular in the late 1940s and 50s.

So was the small Pear.

I have many of the above shapes in Lee, Briarlee, and Pipe Maker brands, and while stingers mostly are interchangeable there’s a very wide variation in stinger details in how they were turned.

Stems interchange but won’t line up except on the individual pipe they were turned to.

I learn more about pipes here every day. Recently I learned Pipes by Lee were marketed by displays in stores alongside Kaywoodie and other brands of pipes, in addition to mail orders.

Except for the very last Frankenlee parts clean up pipes made using the remainder of briar, mortises, tenons, stingers, and stems from all Lee brands, a Lee Star Grade was stamped

LIMITED EDITION



Was the edition limited to how many orders Lee had, how many stingers Lee made that run, or were Lees truly a limited edition, where a shape was made to a certain limited run, and no more - a true limited edition?

If there had been 1/999 and 2/999 and so on stamped on a Lee we’d know it was a true limited edition.

I’m undecided.

What do you think?

 

[craig61a]

Red is gray and yellow white
But we decide which is right
And which is an illusion

 

[AppalachianPipe92]

It was probably just a marketing tactic.

 

[didimauw]

Maybe the limited edition means that the star stamps are messed up and not inline. Wonky stamp. Id buy it.

 

[hugodrax]

I'm very happy that you found the perfect thing for you to collect. Most of us are all over the place and you have a very specific collection.

 

[Briar Lee]

It was probably just a marketing tactic.

Years ago Sears used to market limited edition gold trimmed clothes washers and driers.

Were they?

I’d bet they were. They ordered so many gold decals and not one more, they run.

Every one of us Americans have grown up in a world of decal only limited editions. Every last thing about one 1978 Corvette Pace Car was like the other except the paint job and decals.

The answer can only be found studying tobacco trade journals from the World War Two era to determine what a 1946 pipe smoker thought LIMITED EDITION meant.

The Lee says on the flip side of the shank:

AN AUTHENTIC
IMPORTED BRIAR

That meant a lot in 1946.

Not left over carved scraps, not “Mission Briar” but the same real Mediterranean briar pipe smokers had taken for granted before Hitler invaded Poland. There it was, glowing like Silver Dew on the Bluegrass Tonight.

What we call artisan pipes they called bench made pipes.

A wartime Kaywoodie hand made is a crappy piece of hand carved scrap briar.

Lee stamped them Limited Edition to sell pipes, no doubt at all.

But what did that mean, then?

 

[Briar Lee]

Maybe the limited edition means that the star stamps are messed up and not inline. Wonky stamp. Id buy it.

Those are not stamped.

Somehow, and they couldn’t have been drilled like a White Spot and filled with white plastic, or milled like a Kaywoodie shamrock and filled with white plastic, Lee had a secret method of first punching a perfect 7 pointed asterisk (later a perfect five pointed true star) and then those were hand filled with what probably is some kind of jeweler’s gold.

They aren’t pure brass, because they don’t turn green. They only darken. Gold and silver polish restores the Lee gold stars to new, every time.

You could counterfeit a Lee, but it would take a an incredible effort.

Any jeweler on earth can fake a Dunhill White Spot in nothing flat.

 

[craig61a]

Lee had a secret method of first punching a perfect 7 pointed asterisk (later a perfect five pointed true star) and then those were hand filled with what probably is some kind of jeweler’s gold.

Punch presses and dies weren't a big secret in the 1940's... The stars were the "chips" punched from sheet, and likely pressed into the stem blanks while warm enough to embed themselves then sanded/polished to finish.

Any jeweler on earth can fake a Dunhill White Spot in nothing flat.

Right GIF - Austin Powers International Man Of Mystery Mike Myers - Discover & Share GIFs

Click to view the GIF

tenor.com

 

[Briar Lee]

Dunhill sometimes drills their round White Spot hole too deep and this mistake causes a black spot pipe. It’s well known.

Real or fake? It’s a beautiful, perfect briar, large bent pipe I paid $100 for over the internet on this forum last October. It’s obviously not a factory authorized Dunhill because it was stamped NOT FOR SALE. Also, the button is not well made. Someone had to shorten the pipe, and did a horrible job recutting the button.

The White Spot is flawless.

On the other hand, this is a genuine Lee 7 point star era slim Medium Billiard Three Star, beyond any shadow of doubt.

Lee Star Grades had an extremely difficult to fake trade stamp.

 

[craig61a]

I invented the question mark.

 

[Briar Lee]

I invented the question mark.

Did you figure out how to inlay them into a pipe on a production line?

To fake a White Spot, use a Dremel plus skill.

To fake a Kaywoodie Shamrock, better get a Shamrock punch. A tool and die maker can oblige. Or maybe they were milled.

How dey do dat, at Lee?



It has to line up perfectly.

Stars can’t turn green.

It’s a production line.

Figure that out, then make the asterisks Stars of Bethlehem. Oops, look at the bottom star! (I’ve rubbed those and there’s a gold point underneath the extra vulcanite.)



The gold stars were the main selling point.

 

[hugodrax]

This thread contains an epic amount of entertaining horse feathers.

 

[Briar Lee]

I had a client once upon a time who collected unopened scale model cars, ships, and airplanes.

His garage was piled high with unopened boxes of scale models, hundreds upon hundreds.

Each box was worth only maybe twenty some or thirty some dollars unopened, but the models he had put together were virtually worthless.

Part of the joy of accumulating a huge hoard of Lee Star Grade pipes is they are all worth twenty or thirty some dollars new or used. The top Five Star Lees might fetch a hundred bucks, to two hundred at the most, if unopened and unsmoked in a Lee Five Star box with Lee Five Star matching sleeve plus paperwork and cleaning tool.



Fakes are impossible.

It would cost more to fake the above Five Star Bullmoose than the $85 I paid for it, unsmoked and complete and new in the box, about five years ago on an eBay auction.

In 1946 Dunhill was a hand made factory pipe, and still is today.

A White Spot is worth every penny it costs.

But if you want to smoke the things,,,,

Lees are better.

The stems don’t get loose on a Lee, because they had screw stems.

They cost less in perfect shape than having one restored.

A Lee is a smaller pipe, the style of the forties. So were men’s wristwatches smaller then, too.

But a Lee personifies the post war era, when America had invented the atom bomb and people were celebrating the peace that followed

So play some Moon Mullican and fire up a Lee.

 

[jguss]

Was the edition limited to how many orders Lee had, how many stingers Lee made that run, or were Lees truly a limited edition, where a shape was made to a certain limited run, and no more - a true limited edition?

The cliff notes version of the answer is that Lee trademarked "Limited Edition" just before the formal launch of his business (date of first use was 10/29/45 and date of registration was 2/28/46) and continued making pipes so-marked throughout his ownership of the company. Given that Lee was cranking out pipes marked "Limited Edition" year after year clearly the limitation implied in the "limited" part of the stamp was how many pipes he could manufacture, distribute, and sell.

Lee Star Grades had an extremely difficult to fake trade stamp

I'm honestly not sure how tough it would have been to fake Lee stars (I can say that virtually all such nomenclature can be duplicated by skilled repairmen today) but have a few random observations: a) I can think of other stem nomenclature that was much more difficult to make than Lee's stars (the Sasieni dots would be a notorious example); b) the purpose of the nomenclature was less about making fraudulent goods difficult to produce and more about creating a distinct brand image and marketing tool; c) the purpose of the star grades as stated in advertisements to the trade and the general public was two-fold: for the general public it offered an easy device for distinguishing between quality levels/price points, and for the trade it offered a visible hallmark of cost that retailers could use as a guide to upsell buyers. Two sides of the same coin for sure, but each having a calculated benefit for the audience addressed.

 

[jguss]

I should add that the post-merger catalog shows the continuation of the practice, and makes clear the nature of the somewhat elastic definition of limited edition being used by stating: Made by pipe masters for pipe lovers, each "Star" pipe is a "limited edition" - an individual creation. Since the same catalog also makes it abundantly clear that Lee's pipes were created in a variety of standard shapes this sentence is not to be read as saying that their pipes were in any sense freehands; rather that each pipe was unique in the somewhat mystical way everything that exists is unique, no matter how many apparently identical items are made. By this logic each starred pipe becomes part of a limited edition. This somewhat Talmudic (or Jesuitical if you prefer) hairsplitting renders the concept of "limited" meaningless since by this definition everything is unique and therefore deemed to be one of a kind (limited indeed). Rather reminiscent of kindergarten in the 21st century; everyone is special which of course means that nobody is.

 

[telescopes]

I should add that the post-merger catalog shows the continuation of the practice, and makes clear the nature of the somewhat elastic definition of limited edition being used by stating: Made by pipe masters for pipe lovers, each "Star" pipe is a "limited edition" - an individual creation. Since the same catalog also makes it abundantly clear that Lee's pipes were created in a variety of standard shapes this sentence is not to be read as saying that their pipes were in any sense freehands; rather that each pipe was unique in the somewhat mystical way everything that exists is unique, no matter how many apparently identical items are made. By this logic each starred pipe becomes part of a limited edition. This somewhat Talmudic (or Jesuitical if you prefer) hairsplitting renders the concept of "limited" meaningless since by this definition everything is unique and therefore deemed to be one of a kind (limited indeed). Rather reminiscent of kindergarten in the 21st century; everyone is special which of course means that nobody is.

Amen brother. By the way, where might one find the source material that you are drawing from. I am hard pressed to find much if anything on Lee; although I certainly do appreciate the information you have shared.

 

[Briar Lee]

The cliff notes version of the answer is that Lee trademarked "Limited Edition" just before the formal launch of his business (date of first use was 10/29/45 and date of registration was 2/28/46) and continued making pipes so-marked throughout his ownership of the company. Given that Lee was cranking out pipes marked "Limited Edition" year after year clearly the limitation implied in the "limited" part of the stamp was how many pipes he could manufacture, distribute, and sell.



I'm honestly not sure how tough it would have been to fake Lee stars (I can say that virtually all such nomenclature can be duplicated by skilled repairmen today) but have a few random observations: a) I can think of other stem nomenclature that was much more difficult to make than Lee's stars (the Sasieni dots would be a notorious example); b) the purpose of the nomenclature was less about making fraudulent goods difficult to produce and more about creating a distinct brand image and marketing tool; c) the purpose of the star grades as stated in advertisements to the trade and the general public was two-fold: for the general public it offered an easy device for distinguishing between quality levels/price points, and for the trade it offered a visible hallmark of cost that retailers could use as a guide to upsell buyers. Two sides of the same coin for sure, but each having a calculated benefit for the audience addressed.

Think of that.

Lee was able to trademark

LIMITED EDITION

in late 1945.

Wow.

In late July 1945 the President of the United States of America was coming home on a mere heavy cruiser because every battleship in the fleet was getting ready to bombard the Japanese Home islands.

My grandmother and my mother said when news came of Hiroshima they banged pots and pans and ran out into the streets crying and laughing with joy.

The atomic bomb meant my Uncle Jiggs and Uncle Ben in Europe would live to comb gray hair.

Those boys wouldn’t have to die, invading the Japanese home islands.

—-

Operation Downfall - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

On 15 January 1945, the U.S. Army Service Forces released a document, "Redeployment of the United States Army after the Defeat of Germany." In it, they estimate that during the 18 month period after June 1945 (that is, through December 1946), the Army would be required to furnish replacements for 43,000 dead and evacuated wounded every month.[95] From analysis of the replacement schedule and projected strengths in overseas theaters, it suggested that Army losses alone in those categories, excluding the Navy and Marine Corps, would be approximately 863,000 through the first part of 1947, of whom 267,000 would be killed or missing.[96]This likewise excludes wounded who would be treated in-theater during an initial window of 30 days, later to be expanded to 120 days.
—-
Before all the leaves fell that fall, Lee was planing to market Limited Edition pipes.

He had to gather money, men, equipment, machines, and a marketing plan.

And some high grade old briar would be needed, along with the best grade of vulcanite, plus those little trick hidden screw stems with removable stingers, he’d have to make or buy those, too.

Lee, was reaching for the stars, on October 29, 1945.

THE LEAVES MUST NOT FALL

Moon Mullican

(This tearjerker was about tuberculosis)

Over seven million boys were coming home to the women who loved them.
—
The United States had more than 12 million men and women in the armed forces at the end of World War II, of whom 7.6 million were stationed abroad.
—-

My uncles came home in the summer of 1946.

I wonder how many women bought their soldier boys pretty ten dollar pipes with gold stars before the Limited Edition ran out? .

 

[jguss]

Amen brother. By the way, where might one find the source material that you are drawing from. I am hard pressed to find much if anything on Lee; although I certainly do appreciate the information you have shared.

The short answer is from hundreds of hours of research into trade publications, intellectual property filings, business records, etc. Since a few people have asked me the same thing I'm trying to squeeze out time to prepare a brief summary of Lee and the business he made. I'd like to be able to say for sure when it'll be available, but the people who pay me have the first call on my time. Nonetheless I've already put a fair amount of effort in and will give it serious attention when I can spare the time.

 

[telescopes]

The short answer is from hundreds of hours of research into trade publications, intellectual property filings, business records, etc. Since a few people have asked me the same thing I'm trying to squeeze out time to prepare a brief summary of Lee and the business he made. I'd like to be able to say for sure when it'll be available, but the people who pay me have the first call on my time. Nonetheless I've already put a fair amount of effort in and will give it serious attention when I can spare the time.

Well thank you so much @jguss I know many will appreciate your notes on the Lee pipes. It's always wonderful to find out information about a company that exited so long ago and would have otherwise faded into obscurity if not for the enthusiasm of @Briar Lee and others such as @Parsimonious Piper as well as people such as yourself. We know much about A. Dunhill or even Dr. Grabow and LInkman. Without work such as yours, all we would have are Tall Tales from the middle of Missouri. LOL.

 

[The Amish Tyrant]

The short answer is from hundreds of hours of research into trade publications, intellectual property filings, business records, etc. Since a few people have asked me the same thing I'm trying to squeeze out time to prepare a brief summary of Lee and the business he made. I'd like to be able to say for sure when it'll be available, but the people who pay me have the first call on my time. Nonetheless I've already put a fair amount of effort in and will give it serious attention when I can spare the time.

This will be amazing. Seriously looking forward to it.

Citations and supporting documentation would help dispel the myths and reveal the man, warts and all ... which is a good thing and people can still believe the myths if they so choose.