Most Expensive Pipes Sold Ever

[jpmcwjr]

Don’t get me wrong, I like fine pipes, but would like to see blind smoke tests from some of the pipe “experts” comparing reasonably priced pipes like Rossi, Gigi, Chacom, Brigham, etc., with Castello, Dunhill, Chonowitsch, Manduela, etc. While you often “get what you pay for”, like appliances, tool, cars, etc., I suspect that this “generally” don’t apply to reputable pipe makers. Appearance is obviously something separate, hence, the blind... and garners its own worth.

I've written about the above a few times. My hypothesis is that A.) It'll never happen and B) if it did, there'd still be tons of arguments. Here's the test:

Take evenly smoked, same chamber size of each example, machine smoke them all on the same neutral tobacco for two weeks. Clean them, put them in the machine: All the pipes would be out of sight, and the smoker would pick up one attached tube after another to try to identify the pipe and rate the smoke. Among them would also be a few low end factory pieces.

I submit that very few pipes would be identified. Those that were, mostly chance , The quality of the smoke would be the same for them all, cutting out all brands, nomenclature, looks, feel and weight, emotional attachment or revulsion.

 

[saltedplug]

The verdict of the palate is subject to so many factors that it becomes impossible to devise a test such that all variables are controlled, thus allowing the manipulation of a single factor dependent upon the variability of the hypothesized independent, casually-related factor, starting with the black hole of subjectivity that we call the palate.

 

[Hfinn]

Before this thread gets derailed ? -

If my interest in pipe smoking remains as it is today - I fully expect myself to collect the holy trinity of Danish pipes - Sixten Ivarsson, Jess Chonowitsch and Bo Nordh. Right now I am 1/3 - Pictured below is my Jess Chonowitsch

Yes it smokes as good as my other best smokers ?

View attachment 75686

Wow, fantastic!

 

[sablebrush52]

One aspect of stratospheric priced auction items -- paintings, automobiles, pipes, whatever -- is that the prices are not settled over time, and they don't always go up, a bit like blue chip stocks. The market can move away from any particular item and leave it at half its previous value, or of course gain in value (what someone will pay). The causes are intangible -- sociological, cultural, economic, inexplicable. The show Antiques Road Show has started comparing valuations from past shows to current valuations for individual items, and they go both ways, and can be much more or much less.

Very true. People investing in "collectibles" aren't Einsteins, either.

 

[sablebrush52]

I saw a Jess Chonowitsch pipe in the store, it has a very high price. I read on pipedia that he dries briar for 18-24 months and gets some special results. There are very few of these pipes on the market and the prices are just insane, in the photo there is example for $6,800.

View attachment 75663

Brand recognition. This one is a pretty nice example of his work. But as was pointed out to me by someone who really knows briar on a legendary level, a lot of his output uses really average briar. There's a lot of myth making surrounding celebrity carvers that doesn't always translate into value.

 

[saltedplug]

Better unsaid.

 

[sablebrush52]

Don’t get me wrong, I like fine pipes, but would like to see blind smoke tests from some of the pipe “experts” comparing reasonably priced pipes like Rossi, Gigi, Chacom, Brigham, etc., with Castello, Dunhill, Chonowitsch, Manduela, etc. While you often “get what you pay for”, like appliances, tool, cars, etc., I suspect that this “generally” don’t apply to reputable pipe makers. Appearance is obviously something separate, hence, the blind... and garners its own worth.

From a purely utilitarian point of view, most pipes smoke about the same. But not all pipes smoke about the same. Drilling makes a small difference, engineering makes a bigger one. As I've learned from talking with very experienced high end makers, the airway isn't just a straight shot from the chamber to the slot. There's a carefully calculated change in the dimensions so that flow is even from the chamber through the slot.

Most of us look at the bowl and bowl shaping while barely registering the stem and there's often more careful work in a high end stem than in the stummel. Truth is, much of this is lost on the average pipe smoker, who's perfectly content with his low end or mid range pipe as a nictotine delivery system. Nothing wrong with that.

But there are also people who can appreciate the difference, the feel, in the way the smoke is delivered through a carefully engineered airway, just as there are people who can taste every nuance in a blend, while most can't. There are people who appreciate the way a certain carver shapes the stem, bit, slot, and button, how that shaping feels in use. Our reality is limited to what we can sense, but that doesn't mean all reality is limited to what I can sense, or what any of you can sense.

All that said, I'm not going to drop 4 figures, much less 5, on a pipe at this point in time. Those valuations are unlikely to hold up for much longer as smoking becomes more marginalized, and a number of large collections of ultra high end pipes flood the market as a generation of wealthy collectors age out, or croak out.

 

[guylesss]

My own guess would be the LC shaped briar made for Adolf Hitler from a splinter of the True Cross that came to be so prized by Audrey Hepburn-- who often smoked it whenever she'd have tea with Andy Warhol and Kurt Cobain (to whom she left it in her will).

Which is to say quite often a very big part of the jaw-dropping prices of many so-called "collectible" objects is a unique provenance rather than anything intrinsic--still less anything about how useful or well-functioning it may be. And this is not exactly new. Indeed, I would suspect that even an 18th century visitor to Venice might have been more impressed by the rotting fragment of St Catherine of Siena's tibia in the church of Giovanni e Paolo than the utterly splendid rococo solid gold and rock crystal reliquary that still houses it.

Insanely valuable artworks, books (not inscribed by their authors to other famous people), wine, most exotic sports cars (not victorious in famous races), many musical instruments and other things usually follow a somewhat different set of rules--although what constitutes "knowledgeable" collectors' taste is a decidedly slippery topic (that may involve what famous people liked, and can suddenly change in unexpectedly treacherous ways--especially from the POV of collectors attempting to rationalize their indulgence as an "investment" or even a "hedge").

But getting back to pipes--compared to other worlds--it takes some real effort (or as Jesse points out, stupidity) to break into four figures or beyond. And usually when something does, it probably doesn't have much to do with all that many actual pipe smokers.

Viz, this very sleek looking briar of unknown French manufacture, once the property of Hugh Hefner, with a stem showing the Playboy trademark--which sold at auction for $9000 (three times its high estimate) a couple of years ago.

Hugh Hefner Carved Briar Pipe

A carved briar pipe with custom Playboy Rabbit Head Symbol, marked ""Playboy/ Imported Briar/ France."" Length, 6 1/4 i

www.liveauctioneers.com

 

[sablebrush52]

My own guess would be the LC shaped briar made for Adolf Hitler from a splinter of the True Cross that came to be so prized by Audrey Hepburn-- who often smoked it whenever she'd have tea with Andy Warhol and Kurt Cobain (to whom she left it in her will).

Which is to say quite often a very big part of the jaw-dropping prices of many so-called "collectible" objects is a unique provenance rather than anything intrinsic--still less anything about how useful or well-functioning it may be. And this is not exactly new. Indeed, I would suspect that even an 18th century visitor to Venice might have been more impressed by the rotting fragment of St Catherine of Siena's tibia in the church of Giovanni e Paolo than the utterly splendid rococo solid gold and rock crystal reliquary that still houses it.

Insanely valuable artworks, books (not inscribed by their authors to other famous people), wine, most exotic sports cars (not victorious in famous races), many musical instruments and other things usually follow a somewhat different set of rules--although what constitutes "knowledgeable" collectors' taste is a decidedly slippery topic (that may involve what famous people liked, and can suddenly change in unexpectedly treacherous ways--especially from the POV of collectors attempting to rationalize their indulgence as an "investment" or even a "hedge").

But getting back to pipes--compared to other worlds--it takes some real effort (or as Jesse points out, stupidity) to break into four figures or beyond. And usually when something does, it probably doesn't have much to do with all that many actual pipe smokers.

Viz, this very sleek looking briar of unknown French manufacture, once the property of Hugh Hefner, with a stem showing the Playboy trademark--which sold at auction for $9000 (three times its high estimate) a couple of years ago.

View attachment 75708

Hugh Hefner Carved Briar Pipe

A carved briar pipe with custom Playboy Rabbit Head Symbol, marked ""Playboy/ Imported Briar/ France."" Length, 6 1/4 i

www.liveauctioneers.com

Didn't Hefner give away Savinelli made Playboy pipes as gifts? Isn't transference powerful? $9000 for Hefner's pipe. Einstein did better.

I collect a few things for enjoyment. Investments they are not.

 

[boatme99]

You too can grossly overpay for basically a straight grain Peterson 106

there’s a word for those who spend dumb amounts on something that isn’t worth it to anyone but themself.

Yes. Wealthy.

 

[craig61a]

Yes. Wealthy.

Rich, Loaded, Well Heeled, Well Off...

The fact that somebody can command those kinds of prices, while still alive, is rare. But I wouldn't besmirch him just because he's been successful.

 

[Chasing Embers]

What am I missing it looks like an average pipe

It is, the price is for the name.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Yes. Wealthy.

Showboat more likely. Every wealthy person I've had contact with have been the most penny pinching folks I've ever met.

 

[jpmcwjr]

I've been fortunate, I guess. Most of the rich folks I've met or observed are not penny pinching, nor are they ostentatious. Very decent people with as much sense as money.

 

[boatme99]

Showboat more likely. Every wealthy person I've had contact with have been the most penny pinching folks I've ever met.

I've worked for a LOT of really wealthy people. I never found them to be cheap, they just expect to get what they;re paying for.
Truly wealthy people spend huge amounts of time watching their money, they have to.
You ever wonder why those folks that win 200 - 500 million in the lottery always end up broke? Because they have no idea how to manage their new found wealth. They think they can just spend, spend, spend with no thoughts of investing for the future, or they use some unscrupulous manager to handle the money for them, who eventually rips them off.

 

[Chasing Embers]

You ever wonder why those folks that win 200 - 500 million in the lottery always end up broke?

Not at all. Give an idiot a dollar.......

 

[brian64]

Give an idiot a dollar.......

It's called taxes.

 

[B18]

Before this thread gets derailed ? -

If my interest in pipe smoking remains as it is today - I fully expect myself to collect the holy trinity of Danish pipes - Sixten Ivarsson, Jess Chonowitsch and Bo Nordh. Right now I am 1/3 - Pictured below is my Jess Chonowitsch

Yes it smokes as good as my other best smokers ?

View attachment 75686

Bo Nord is Swedish, if i'm not mistaken...

 

[Gus]

I have seen a Sixten Ivarson for sale on ebay for over 29000 USD a couple of years or three ago.

Also one Bo North in mor than 25000 USD

 

[cshubhra]

Bo Nord is Swedish, if i'm not mistaken...

You are correct! Thank you!