Miniature Pipes by Lee

[mso489]

I guess I just don't spend enough time on eBay, but I have never heard of Lee pipes, so I'm happy to be educated on the subject. They were born in 1946, and so was I, as was my wife. However, her grandma was a covered wagon pioneer. Don't worry, I had to do the math on that one two. Grandma Girtha was a baby at the time, and had to learn to walk again after riding in the wagon so far. And, my wife's dad was a World War One (that's One) veteran, since he joined the Army right out of high school, and my wife was a later-in-life baby for her parents. Anyway, glad to hear of Lee pipes and their NY origins.

 

[telescopes]

Well…. I have Pipe by Lee , a Briar Lee, and a Marxman on their way to their new home in California. I’ll be sure to post.

 

[Briar Lee]

My fascination with Pipes by Lee, is that those old dark horse cavalrymen who managed to not only survive a civil war, but come home victorious and win fair and fancy maidens, were all of Scottish ancestry.

The Scott is legendarily thrifty.

And if he wins the fair and fancy maiden he’d better be thrifty, to support her in the manner of which she’s entitled.

In order to be her consort, he’d best be a wise purchaser of luxury goods at everyday prices.

Our friend named Lee (if he was Lee, and not Stewart or Allen) did something few men would dare attempt.

The greatest war in all history had just ended, in late 1945.

The boys didn’t come home in 1945.

They came home in 1946.

16 million men, are coming back home to find fancy and fair maidens (if they didn’t have one, already).

The most expensive regularly cataloged smoking pipe in the world is a ten dollar Kaywoodie Flame Grain, and at that time the display cards in all the shops are crowded with dollar briar pipes.

Look at Lee’s first 1946 catalog page.

He’s selling what amounts to a knock off of a Kaywoodie. He doesn’t mention his tiny improvements to the pipe (hidden and adjustable fittings for the screw stem and removable stinger) and he says nothing about what his customer is sure to discover the first smoke, which is a Lee somehow needs no break in, yet it’s not carbon coated or pre smoked.

He says Reach for the Stars, symbol of The World’s Finest Pipe!

At $25 it was the most expensive regular cataloged production pipe on the earth.

You first had to write for a catalog.

Then select a pipe, and send $3.50, $5, $10, $15, or $25 to Lee. If you wanted, send Lee $1, $1.50, or $2.50 for a Briarlee.

I know the customer got a magnificent box with a pipe inside a fancy cloth sleeve, and each Star Grade has a matching Star Grade box.

The cost difference to Lee, between his lowest $1 Briarlee, and his best $25 Five Star Grade, could have not been anything much at all. He used the same oil cured briar. The vast majority of his customers sent him $10 and they got a little better grained pipe than if they sent him $5. If they sent $25 they only got a little better briar, too.

The minimum wage was forty cents an hour. Yet my mother was earning $200 a month as a school teacher.

I’ll bet lunch Lee sold most of his pipes to women to give as gifts to returning heroes.

If our hero smoked it, he was hooked.

And he kept getting a $10 or $15 Lee twice a year for his birthday and Christmas, for about twenty five years.

Fair ladies wanted to be seen, with a man with stars on his pipe.

 

[didimauw]

Do you ever find unsmoked Lee pipes? I don't want a pipe some gross old dead guy had in his mouth. But I'm intrigued at the fact they dunk em in oil first. I love the smell of motor oil! I'm looking online at em now!

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I’ll bet lunch Lee sold most of his pipes to women to give as gifts to returning heroes.

So, the theory is that Tupperware and wives of returning heros were responsible for so many Lee pipes having been unsmoked?
I'm not sure which is worse... to be a pipe that was never bought in the first place, or the pipe that was given as gifts to loved ones, to returning heroes, that were never even removed from their boxes. I mean, my wife has given me some humdingers of bad gifts over the years. But, no matter how ridiculous the gift, I have always used the things at least a few times. I mean, I love her dearly, so the Christmas singing fish hung on the wall for at least until Valentines day, and I wore the cologne that smelled like rancid fruitcake at least once... while making whoopie... just enough to prove to her that the smell was really a bad idea. I mean, these soldiers hated these pipes so much that they looked into the eyes of their beloved wives, girlfriends, and said, "what the hell were you thinking?" Maybe they were like, "I preserved freedom and democracy, and all I got was this oil cured Briar Lee?" and then he throws it into a drawer and never even takes it out to give it a go?

 

[Briar Lee]

Our old friend Lee, was a seller of dreams as much as pipes.

Not only do an astonishing number of once or twice smoked or brand new Pipes by Lee still exist, many of those are still in their original gift boxes.

I’ve never seen a single One Star Grade Lee, for sale on eBay, and I’ve looked everyday for nearly twenty years.

One theory I have is that Lee was actually Wally Frank, or another well connected Kaywoodie family member, or friend.

The Kaywoodie Syncro Stem patent (and perhaps the patent on the Drinkless ball stinger as well) had not expired in 1946.

Since the Lee screw stem was recessed in front, and screwed instead of pressed into the stem, Kaywoodie could have pretended a Star Grade Lee was not an infringement. All Briarlee production I’ve seen so far have push stems. But the Pipe Maker series that Lee didn’t advertise but are without question Lee production are complete copies of the Kaywoodie Syncro Stem as far as the public could see.

I’ve never seen a Pipe Maker advertisement, but there are several every day on eBay for sale, some with red dot bullseyes and some with blue dot bullseyes, and often in very high condition, or unsmoked like this graceful little Prince of Wales ( or Apple Churchwarden?) I smoked the first time myself.

Any man who’s ever felt like he was the only straight guy in Starbucks ordering a Venti double skinny white chocolate mocha latte, with an extra shot of expresso, plus the biggest cup of house coffee for himself, knows the power of a marketing genius to sell things to a different gender than the buyer.

My wife and two legal assistants and just about every woman in my office coo and ahh over my Lee pipes and tell me stories how some man they loved smoked a pipe like those, and how good it smells, and how they’d buy him a pipe.

Usually it’s a long dead grandfather, who’d have been quite young and dashing in 1946.

But the ladies are usually horrified to learn most of my Lee pipes were bought used, and I cleaned them up. How can you smoke what some other man smoked, they’ll ask? I’ll explain I use the same grade alcohol used to disinfect surgical instruments, but even then, you know they’d never be grateful or appreciate a second handed rose, except maybe on their deathbeds.

Tom T Hall wrote a song about that, but he did about almost everything else in life.

SECOND HANDED FLOWERS

 

[telescopes]

So that explains the infilled hole on a pipe maker I saw for sale recently. I wondered what went into that hole. Since you began praising these damned lee pipes, the eBay price has jacked them up every where. @Briar Lee , you is a Kentucky Colonel.

 

[twoonefive]

But, if there is anywhere in the world that should embrace this man, we are his people.

Truer words are rarely spoken.

 

[didimauw]

I like hearing you wax poetic about these pipes @Briar Lee . It certainly makes me want to try one! If I could find an unsmoked estate I'd buy it!