I have a couple Marxman pipes and have always thought they were undervalued. Mine smoke great and they are well carved.
My New Marxman Bench Made Pipe
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And you seriously weren't kidding about those carved ones. And some people actually really smoked the shit out of them! Wow!Here are some very weird examples that showcase the uniqueness that was Marxman.
0943, Robert L Marx (Marxman Pipes), Tobacco Smoking Pipe, Estate, 00220 | eBay
As always this pipe is being sold in "AS IS" condition. Bowl Height = ". Length = ". Chamber depth = ". Chamber width = ".www.ebay.com
HAND CARVED Wooden Smoking Pipe Marxman Collectibles Made in Italy | eBay
Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for HAND CARVED Wooden Smoking Pipe Marxman Collectibles Made in Italy at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!www.ebay.com
MARXMAN HAND CARVED SKULL PIPE - Ketchikan ALASKA - Dated 6/25/1948 FOLK ART | eBay
Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for MARXMAN HAND CARVED SKULL PIPE - Ketchikan ALASKA - Dated 6/25/1948 FOLK ART at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!www.ebay.com
🇺🇸 🏛️ U.S. ANTIQUE PIPE: MARXMAN - ELEPHANT w/ TUSKS - 1934-1953 - 🔴UNSMOKED | eBay
Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 🇺🇸 🏛️ U.S. ANTIQUE PIPE: MARXMAN - ELEPHANT w/ TUSKS - 1934-1953 - 🔴UNSMOKED at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!www.ebay.com
In spite of the worst, and longest depression in American history, Bob Marx launched a successful pipe brand.Yes you can tell Marxman, Lees, Kaywoodie and grabow, all competed at one point or another. Lol
Better tasting briar? Better than.....Lees?????
And you mean better tasting while smoked right? You don't like....lick em do you? Lol
I read where he advertised all pipes were hand cut and he used small production methods.
There weren’t any fifty cent or a dollar Marxmans. A lot of the production was carved, no doubt to utilize more of that fantastic quality, aged, soft Algerian briar.
The best kept secret in quality American pipes is Marxman.
Your selection reminds me of Lees. The best kept secret was that Marxman pipes looked nothing like Lees when you dug a bit deeper.
I’m an old Scott. My selection was based on no one of my five costing more than thirty bucks, and most twenty.
The elaborately carved Marxmans fetch good prices.
Now, it was a special, not a grade like Lee Five Star you could select, but Bob Marx tried selling a $25 pipe, the 400.
A 400 would be a rare find, I suppose.
My stash includes a D,C, and B Jumbo, a Super Briar, and a no grade.
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The third and the fifth, for me have the most appeal. I have quite a few unsmoked smooth finished Marxman pipes in the traditional billiard or full bend shape. It is the ugly rusticated ones that get my most attention. Your number three pipe starts to speak to that. I do have a beautifully shaped SIX PANEL Marxman pipe that is just the cat's meow.I’m an old Scott. My selection was based on no one of my five costing more than thirty bucks, and most twenty.
The elaborately carved Marxmans fetch good prices.
Now, it was a special, not a grade like Lee Five Star you could select, but Bob Marx tried selling a $25 pipe, the 400.
View attachment 195838
A 400 would be a rare find, I suppose.
My stash includes a D,C, and B Jumbo, a Super Briar, and a no grade.
View attachment 195840
My Marxman Royal is most likely as close to a 400 that I will ever own.
it has the gold band and a shape that approaches that of the 400. It is a large bowl pipe.
If you had accumulated a 100 Marxman pipes, a good majority of them would be unique and weird looking.
When my dear old angel mother packed my bags and sent me off to college, I first encountered foreign import snobbery.
I thought a NASCAR Boss 429 Mustang was the pinnacle of automotive design, while my new friends from the city preferred Ferrari, or some little Volkswagen looking thing they called a Por-Shay.
My dream girls were Emmylou Harris and Sally Fields, and a young Elizabeth Taylor and Natalie Wood, and I couldn’t even pronounce Deneuve.
If my C size Benchmade Jumbo Marxman had not been made here, folks might have appreciated Marxman more.
You could say the same, about Emmylou Harris, I think.
I thought a NASCAR Boss 429 Mustang was the pinnacle of automotive design, while my new friends from the city preferred Ferrari, or some little Volkswagen looking thing they called a Por-Shay.
My dream girls were Emmylou Harris and Sally Fields, and a young Elizabeth Taylor and Natalie Wood, and I couldn’t even pronounce Deneuve.
If my C size Benchmade Jumbo Marxman had not been made here, folks might have appreciated Marxman more.
You could say the same, about Emmylou Harris, I think.
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After my meer year, and after I buy my next Savinelli, Im going to have to find an unsmoked one. Just for curiosity sake. Hopefully I can find an uncarved smooth one....
I'm really intrigued by them, as some I've seen on here look absolutely beautiful and well made, and some look very cheap and ugly.
The one pictured here, reminds me of something Mr. Brog would make. And I HOPE I'm totally wrong. And no offense intended to Marxman.
It’s about 6 1/2 inches long, 2 inches high bowl, .866 inches inside bowl diameter, almost 1 1/2 inches outside bowl diameter. No fills, and it’s a sitter.
Marxman made A through D size Jumbos, and compared to another one I have larger, I think this one was a C. Benchmade is a grade, above the Super Briar, and roughly comparable to a Lee Three Star or Kaywoodie Flame Grain.
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Awesome. That is a beautiful hunk of briar there, ya know?!
it's a fine Marxman. I have a few that could be defined this way. However, @didimauw , if it is a nondescript Marxman you are pursuing, and I certainly don't discourage that pursuit, you might be happier with a lightly or non smoked Lee. First and second generation Lee pipes tend to have a better fit, finish, and grade of vulcanite. That said, who am I to suggest differently. I really like my Marxman Pipes. We need more of them on the WAYS thread.
So let me ask you this then. How is the fit and finish of a late model push stem Lee, compared to a Marxman? I'd much prefer a regular tenon.
Well, it depends. I'd say the Lee and the Marxman are on par with each other. However, some late model Lees still had screw on tenons. But keep in mind that the stinger pulls off of a Lee and they are very easy to reclock. I wouldn't let that stop me from any Lee.
A beautiful hunk of Algerian briar, to boot.
From this long distance we can’t quite understand the controversy about Algerian briar, that existed until it became essentially unobtainable.
Dunhill used it, but only for the blasted Shell Briars.
The French considered Algeria as much a part of France as we do Alaska a part of the USA. But they treated the Muslim Algerians worse than Arkansawyers.
The briar there was the same specie of heath shrubs as all around the Mediterranean, but millennia of grazing must have relegated the Heather to the wildest, most remote, inaccessible, windswept coastal regions where even goats didn’t roam. It was very porous, soft, and hard to work with on a production scale.
Everything I’ve read about it claims it required much longer curing, and after that longer aging to be used.
Algerian briar soaks up grapeseed oil like a sponge.
C size Benchmade Jumbo before cleaning and oiling. $30 delivered January 2023.
If Marx used stain he didn’t use a very dark stain. Algerian briar pipes had a typical tannish color cast.
I’ve had four Algerian briar pipes in the last month, and three were almost new and one not ever smoked to the bottom.
Unlike a Lee, that on break in has an extremely sweet briar taste, although they get hot, sweat, even crackle a little until broken in, I find Algerian briar needs hardly any break in at all. Also, it’s very easy to take all the carbon from an Algerian briar pipe and have it bare brown again. It seems to not want to cake.
It might not be the prettiest but it’s the prettiest smoking briar that ever was.
Not a fair comparison, because late push stem Lees were probably made with the bankers peeping in the door every day.
I’m not a pipe maker, but I think even a Mr Brog or Dr Grabow simply must have a little hand finishing.
Lees are extremely consistent. They are all drilled dead center. Everything is machine made consistent. Except for the last push stem Lees there’s a jewel like quality to the entire pipe.
Marxman pipes really were made with old time small production methods.
My Benchmade Jumbo was made on a bench by a skilled artisan,
Honestly, a Marxman is closer to a Dunhill than any Kaywoodie or Lee.
A word of caution. Marx sold out to SM Frank in 1953, and if the pipe is stamped Italy or France or England it was an import. It might be a wonderful pipe, but it wasn’t made in the Marxman shop.
I’m not a collector. The collectible Marxman pipes were hand carved, in the Marxman shop.
Here’s one.
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That's a fine looking Marxman.Not a fair comparison, because late push stem Lees were probably made with the bankers peeping in the door every day.
I’m not a pipe maker, but I think even a Mr Brog or Dr Grabow simply must have a little hand finishing.
Lees are extremely consistent. They are all drilled dead center. Everything is machine made consistent. Except for the last push stem Lees there’s a jewel like quality to the entire pipe.
Marxman pipes really were made with old time small production methods.
My Benchmade Jumbo was made on a bench by a skilled artisan,
Honestly, a Marxman is closer to a Dunhill than any Kaywoodie or Lee.
A word of caution. Marx sold out to SM Frank in 1953, and if the pipe is stamped Italy or France or England it was an import. It might be a wonderful pipe, but it wasn’t made in the Marxman shop.
I’m not a collector. The collectible Marxman pipes were hand carved, in the Marxman shop.
Here’s one.
View attachment 196155View attachment 196156View attachment 196158
@didimauw and @Briar Lee , pictured are two nice older pipes in a traditional style. Note that the top one is a Pipe Maker, in great condition with the red dot and white circle still in tack. The bottom is a six panel Marxman with a nickel band and a saddle stem. Both are great smokers and both represent a traditional look. Bargains and decent pipes from times past that represent your elders are out there. I imagine either of these pipes would have been at home or at Eureka Springs most famous restaurant, Rogues' Manor. Or, when in Cassville, MO, the dining room of the rib. Either would look just fine in the mouth of a man with a dinner jacket. I wish more people on the forum appreciated pipes like this. When taken care of, they look handsomely on a pipe stand and even better in the hand or mouth of someone who knows how to smoke them properly.
This is how pipes should look. Pipes like this is the reason I started smoking a pipe. No wierd shapes, bling, wierd colors. Just beautiful briar.