Ruminations on a Forty Dollar Pipe

[fireground_piper]

50, must have been a $5 pipe at the time. Very cool. I've been looking for a rusticated one but it seems like they are a little bit harder to find than the smooth.

Yeah I haven’t seen many (or any?) so heavily rusticated. It’s definitely in the vain of your custombilts, tom howards, etc of the time.

The shank is very not square but I do really like the shape and feel of it even though the shank and stem were cocked.

 

[towhee89]

Yeah I haven’t seen many (or any?) so heavily rusticated. It’s definitely in the vain of your custombilts, tom howards, etc of the time.

The shank is very not square but I do really like the shape and feel of it even though the shank and stem were cocked.

They definately did smooths with a lot of fills also though. That Zulu I got has 7 on the bottom, but it was a good price, doesn't bother me and you can't see unless you look. Probably means it's wartime...seems like they took the pretty grained Algerian Briar that had numerous minor sand pits and made smooths anyway, instead of rustication. My Marxman Super has pretty grain and over 30 fills xD they forced them out during the war I reckon.

 

[Briar Lee]

Yeah I haven’t seen many (or any?) so heavily rusticated. It’s definitely in the vain of your custombilts, tom howards, etc of the time.

The shank is very not square but I do really like the shape and feel of it even though the shank and stem were cocked.

Something is wrong with my 40 ($4? Or $40?) Bertram because not only is it dented, there’s a grove in the shank and stem both!



A $3.50 Kaywoodie Drinkless was a flawless pipe before WW2.

Here’s the price list for mail order Bertam 1950.



If it’s a mere $4 pipe then the closest is a $3.50 Judicial.



Now, even a mere $2.50 Envoy, had unvarnished, unstained, real Algerian that turned oxblood when smoked.



A five dollar Senator had 100-150 year old briar!



But my Bertam is not stamped a Senator or Judicial or Envoy, which apparently had three number stamps.

Mine only is number stamped 40.

David’s HD28 cost $28 back before the war and today they cost $3,500 and in David’s paperwork it cost $2,500 in 2007.



A Bertram 40 about has to be a $40 pipe before the war.

And that Algerian briar is centuries and centuries old. Count the lines. That’s a straight grain. The burl was maybe as big as a volleyball!

Or else that 1950 catalog is outdated.

In 1950 Straight Grains topped at $25

 

[Briar Lee]

Yeah I haven’t seen many (or any?) so heavily rusticated. It’s definitely in the vain of your custombilts, tom howards, etc of the time.

The shank is very not square but I do really like the shape and feel of it even though the shank and stem were cocked.

Something is wrong with my 40 ($4? Or $40?) Bertram because not only is it dented, there’s a grove in the shank and stem both!

View attachment 376048

A $3.50 Kaywoodie Drinkless was a flawless pipe before WW2.

Here’s the price list for mail order.

View attachment 376053

If it’s a mere $4 pipe then the closest is a $3.50 Judicial.

View attachment 376056

Now, even a mere $2.50 Envoy, had unvarnished, unstained, real Algerian that turned oxblood when smoked.

View attachment 376057

A five dollar Senator had 100-150 year old briar!

View attachment 376058

But my Bertam is not stamped a Senator or Judicial or Envoy, which apparently had three number stamps.

Mine only is letter stamped 40.

David’s HD28 cost $28 back before the war and today they cost $3,500 and in David’s paperwork it cost $2,500 in 2007.

View attachment 376063

A Bertram 40 about has to be a $40 pipe before the war.

Or else that 1950 catalog is outdated.

In 1950 mail order Straight Grain Bertrams topped at $25.

View attachment 376065

 

[towhee89]

Something is wrong with my 40 ($4? Or $40?) Bertram because not only is it dented, there’s a grove in the shank and stem both!

View attachment 376048

A $3.50 Kaywoodie Drinkless was a flawless pipe before WW2.

Here’s the price list for mail order Bertam 1950.

View attachment 376053

If it’s a mere $4 pipe then the closest is a $3.50 Judicial.

View attachment 376056

Now, even a mere $2.50 Envoy, had unvarnished, unstained, real Algerian that turned oxblood when smoked.

View attachment 376057

A five dollar Senator had 100-150 year old briar!

View attachment 376058

But my Bertam is not stamped a Senator or Judicial or Envoy, which apparently had three number stamps.

Mine only is letter stamped 40.

David’s HD28 cost $28 back before the war and today they cost $3,500 and in David’s paperwork it cost $2,500 in 2007.

View attachment 376063

A Bertram 40 about has to be a $40 pipe before the war.

Or else that 1950 catalog is outdated.

Pics are so weird. It seems like every time I get a pipe I'm in for some surprise I didn't notice. But I think it's the lighting the seller used. You should ask him, that way we can lay it to rest. And here I was thinking it was kinda cool it had dents xD

I could never figure out if this was 30S or 60S, but mine has some very nice straight grain.

No Paint! No Varnish! No Breaking In!

 

[Briar Lee]

Pics are so weird. It seems like every time I get a pipe I'm in for some surprise I didn't notice. But I think it's the lighting the seller used. You should ask him, that way we can lay it to rest. And here I was thinking it was kinda cool it had dents xD

I could never figure out if this was 30S or 60S, but mine has some very nice straight grain.View attachment 376066View attachment 376067

No Paint! No Varnish! No Breaking In!

Try Grade 30 ($30) S (Smooth)

We know in 1950 the Straight Grains cost $10-25 and you had to trust Bertram. Each one was purely crafted according to price, more money, better grain. And if you actually walked into Bertram with $30, $50, or even $200 those old Germans would take your money and you’d wait longer, but you’d get your moneys worth. Anything above $25 in 1950 was a special commision, just like today.

For example, when David and I played the nursing homes for all the donuts and coffee and tea we could drink, my best Guitar was likely my 1992 Fender (Taiwan made) SX1500.

That guitar cost $1,500 in 1992, the year Fender had it made in Taiwan.

Porter Wagner had a Martin D41, which was $41 before the war.

With pipes and guitars like Fenders and Gibsons and Martins the quality of the tone woods (like an old violin) determined the quality, plus of course, the Touch of the Master’s Hand.

I always recited this, while David played in the background.

David started with a cheap Epiphone his parents got him as a kid and bought his Martin HD28 from a broke MU employee going through a divorce for only $500.

I guess it’s not hot.

The man was ordered to sell it as part of a divorce, and I have the paperwork where he bought it.

A truly high end guitar and a high end Algerian straight grain are about as close to holy grails as modern objects get.

You can take one that’s busted and always have a master fix it.



Willie paid $600 for Trigger in 1969. It’s the most valuable Martin in existence, but like the Mona Lisa, there’s only one Trigger.

 

[towhee89]

Try Grade 30 ($30) S (Smooth)

We know in 1950 the Straight Grains cost $10-25 and you had to trust Bertram. Each one was purely crafted according to price, more money, better grain. And if you actually walked into Bertram with $30, $50, or even $200 those old Germans would take your money and you’d wait longer, but you’d get your moneys worth. Anything above $25 in 1950 was a special commision, just like today.

For example, when David and I played the nursing homes for all the donuts and coffee and tea we could drink, my best Guitar was likely my 1992 Fender (Taiwan made) SX1500.

That guitar cost $1,500 in 1992, the year Fender had it made in Taiwan.

Porter Wagner had a Martin D41, which was $41 before the war.

With pipes and guitars like Fenders and Gibsons and Martins the quality of the tone woods (like an old violin) determined the quality, plus of course, the Touch of the Master’s Hand.

I always recited this, while David played in the background.

David started with a cheap Epiphone his parents got him as a kid and bought his Martin HD28 from a broke MU employee going through a divorce for only $500.

I guess it’s not hot.

The man was ordered to sell it as part of a divorce, and I have the paperwork where he bought it.

A truly high end guitar and a high end Algerian straight grain are about as close to holy grails as modern objects get.

You can take one that’s busted and always have a master fix it.

View attachment 376088

Willie paid $600 for Trigger in 1969. It’s the most valuable Martin in existence, but like the Mona Lisa, there’s only one Trigger.

I have a 1920s parlor guitar, a Lakewood, given to me as a gift from my grandfather's good friend Rex. Let me tell ya that guitar sounds insane. The wood has crystallized the past 100 years, and the harmonic overtones you just can not get on a new axe, period. That only comes from age.

So, surely straight grained Algerian Briar ages too, and smokes better

Just took me a few Marxman and a Bertrams to find out, about that good ol aged Algerian.

 

[Briar Lee]

I have a 1920s parlor guitar, a Lakewood, given to me as a gift from my grandfather's good friend Rex. Let me tell ya that guitar sounds insane. The wood has crystallized the past 100 years, and the harmonic overtones you just can not get on a new axe, period. That only comes from age.

So, surely straight grained Algerian Briar ages too, and smokes better

That age changes and improves wood has been well known for centuries, but age also destroys.

And with guitars the strings are always trying to pull up the neck.

And a hundred years ago, many of the the exotic woods they imported for musical instruments are now all gone or on the endangered list.

And in the case of Algerian briar, the door closed in November 1954 when the Berbers grew tired of them dying by the literal hundreds of thousands, of starvation, or just lined up and shot, by the French.

If the French had won there’d still be Algerian briar.

As it is, all the French graders who knew which briar was worth ten dollars and which was only worth a dollar or a quarter or a dime are now long dead, or long retired.

What makes a Bertram different than a Marxman is mainly Bertram seems to have been a walk in shop for the true high grades, and of course they sold the cheap pipes from $1.50-$10, the only difference being grade of geniune Algerian briar.

Dunhill used Algerian until about 1968 on the shell briars but of course those were all blasted.

Was Algerian briar best?

When famous Generals and Admirals and the entire Senate and House and Supreme Court were showing off their Bertrams to each other, cheating even one, was a real bad idea.

They truly had faith it was best, and who are we today to argue?

 

[towhee89]

And this was the 40s!!!!

 

[Briar Lee]

Another reason Bertram should be considered the premier pipe shop in America, is Bertram’s shop was as close to our nation’s Capitol campus as my house was to Bug Tussle.

Bertrams was on 14th and the Capitol on 9th street



A pipe shop in sight of the Capitol dome would have a clientele of a hundred per cent preening, ostentatious narcissists imagining themselves the next Washington or Lincoln.

My father’s Uncle Elmer had 60 acres hard by Bug Bussle, he’d paid $65 an acre in 1921 and he lost the entire 60 in 1936 and received $3.50 an acre from his gorgeous and glamorous sister who’d married well.

But there was never any local Great Depression at 920 Fourteenth Street NW

Look at the sheer elegance how they describe each and every pipe that was from the House of Bertram




You could have seen about every big shot in Washington DC during the Great Depression at Bertram.

But during the war, the entire city was a target for the Axis powers, blacked out each night, and the streets jammed with military vehicles.

And during the war, there was no Algerian to be imported, not even by Bertram.

 

[towhee89]

Wonder if they brought the old world German pipe making ability here....
Benjamin Bertram Goldmann...would love to find more.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

I'm not sure those are dents............ looks like a weird lighting issue to me.

Man , I think you're right. It looks like a ceiling light or something , or a reflection.

I believe you’re right. It’s probably a circular fluorescent or LED light. It is creating what looks like dents on the bowl and a groove on the shank and stem.

 

[Briarcutter]

I believe you’re right. It’s probably a circular fluorescent or LED light. It is creating what looks like dents on the bowl and a groove on the shank and stem.

I believe you are all correct. I assumed briar lee had the pipe in hand and commented on the dents by his observation.

 

[towhee89]

I believe you are all correct. I assumed briar lee had the pipe in hand and commented on the dents by his observation.

It was the listing photos, yes.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I assumed briar lee had the pipe in hand and commented on the dents by his observation.

Wait, so we are talking about a pipe that he doesn't have yet?

 

[Briar Lee]

Wait, so we are talking about a pipe that he doesn't have yet?

It’s in the United States Postal Service!!?



Me and David knew lots of Tokyo Rose and Axis Sally songs about the United Stares Post Office.

You see friends, while your Congressmen and Senators were in Washington DC buying forty dollar pipes at Bertram’s, those mothers at home were dreading the postman arriving.

Axis Sally and Tokyo Rose would play songs like this not even realizing that when the Greatest Generation were in their wheelchairs in the nursing homes their sons and daughters would be still singing those sacred hymns of World War Two.

Ready David, for a Tribute to Tokyo Rose?

David would say send that Soldier’s Last Letter, and our crowds always gobbled that up!

All it took was the Japanese to murder one church deacon who served communion with my father at Humansville early on Sunday, December 7, 1941 at the helm of the USS Arizona to make certain all the surviving boys from Humansville will never forget it, nor forgive.

https://gilroydispatch.com/pilgrimage-to-pearl-harbor-solves-a-family-mystery/

Every pretty schoolteacher in Humansville to this day takes the children to the sacred grave of Coxswain Urban Herschel Marlow.

If my Forty Dollar Bertram is in the mail, I will get it.

 

[Briarcutter]

It’s in the United States Postal Service!!?

That's even better! You'll get a dentless Bertram The dents go for an extra charge.

 

[Briar Lee]

Wonder if they brought the old world German pipe making ability here....
Benjamin Bertram Goldmann...would love to find more.View attachment 376173

Part of mine and David’s performances were to make double sure, that we only spread the love of humanity and not hatred of the common people of Japan and Germany.

The very first song I sang over the telephone to my mother in 1996 when I learned three chords on my 1992 Fender SX1500, was Fraulien

I’d look over at David and say David, what happened to those poor boys, who got those Dear John letters from home?

He’d say Germany after the war was chock full of pretty Frauliens looking for a ticket to America Van!

After the war we hung the worst Nazis at Nuremberg after a fair trial.

And we hung a few of their worst women, too.

But we left every old German craftsman plying his trade alone.

If I make it to heaven, where my Mother and David surely dwell, I want to hear my own Mama ask me and David after I sang Fraulien,,,…

Vanny, what happened to those pretty Frauliens who believed our poor boys got Dear John letters?

I’s say which version, Mama, and she said the one my brother Jiggs taught you.

We had a whole bunch of fun, and we surely didn’t hurt anyone doing it.

 

[Briar Lee]

That's even better! You'll get a dentless Bertram The dents go for an extra charge.

Your best guarantee of a man’s character is all the bad things his enemies say about him.






He’s generated a tracking number.



I know dents when I see dents.

And when it arrives I’ll be double sure.

 

[towhee89]

Your best guarantee of a man’s character is all the bad things his enemies say about him.




View attachment 376315

He’s generated a tracking number.

View attachment 376316

I know dents when I see dents.

And when it arrives I’ll be double sure.

I've bought from him twice, good seller.