The Archetypal Billiard

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marcel

Might Stick Around
Feb 25, 2015
72
0
If you ask a random group of people to close their eyes and imagine a tobacco pipe I think the majority would imagine a billiard pipe.
Now I’m asking a random group of pipe smokers to close their eyes and imagine a billiard pipe, what pipe in the real world comes closest to that pure/generic/archetypal billiard shape.

 

wyfbane

Lifer
Apr 26, 2013
5,117
3,517
Tennessee
I am too new to be super sure, but based on charts of what people say are Billiards and Jess Chonowitsch's execution (and the prices he actually GETS) for his pipes, I'd go with his interpretation.
The Greek Guy, Chris Asteriou is another clean carver of the classics.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
The Iwan Ries house pipe straight billiard made by Benton, a subset of Edwards, which it appears is no longer being made. Big bowl, ample shank, tapered stem, Algerian briar. A handsome, sturdy pipe within the price range of most pipe smokers. This to me is the anchor of the pipe smoking community.

 

agnosticpipe

Lifer
Nov 3, 2013
3,332
3,413
In the sticks in Mississippi
Even though I smoke mostly straight billiards, the painting by Rene Magritte always comes to mind. I just like the image, and for some reason I always think it looks like the classic idea of a pipe that just happens to be a bent billiard.

Eh, can't think of anything else to say....

margritti-this-is-not-a-pipe-600x418.jpg


 

marcel

Might Stick Around
Feb 25, 2015
72
0
Of the currently available pipes on the market I always thought the Savinelli 128 and the Stanwell 51are quintessential billiard shapes.

 

bigpond

Lifer
Oct 14, 2014
2,019
13
Odd question. I see the billiard as generic and associate images of people smoking rather than a brand or pipe embellishment when I think of it. Billiards are the default mental image when I think of pipe smoking.

 

maxpeters

Can't Leave
Jan 4, 2010
439
20
I think Dunhill does one of the better classical billiard shapes. I never really got into billiards though. I like a thicker bowl, like a pot, but billiards do look neat and trim. Maybe because I'm not a clincher. If I were, I can see how a billiard would be more comfortable to hold.

 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,621
44,833
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
This is a terrific question, in part because there is no such animal. There are a lot of billiard shapes and variants. Like many others, I thought the billiard shape to be the quintessential bore, even though, or maybe because, it's rigorous set of proportions made it the standard by which a carver would prove his prowess. Can't carve a proper billiard? Then you're a fake as a carver.

But I've learned to appreciate the subtleties between styles and the difficulties to be overcome in rendering those subtleties. There's no place to hide when carving the standard billiard shapes.

So who represents the archetypal billiard to me? No one. Who represents the best execution of billiard shapes for me? Genod, Comoy, Barling, Sasieni, Loewe, Dunhill, Chacom, and Kaywoodie. Magritte's pipe is a Genod. Dunhill's famous swans neck was a Genod design. I should buy me some Genods.

 
May 4, 2015
3,210
16
I've heard that Pipe makers find getting a billiard just right is one of the hardest things to do. Maybe it's because it's such an iconic shape and everyone has their idea of what a classic pipe should look like.

 

marcel

Might Stick Around
Feb 25, 2015
72
0
I'm of the opinion that it does exist, just not in the physical world. This is Plato's Theory of Forms
One can play this game with just about any noun. If it's in the physical world, it's perfect form exists in the non-physical realm. What's fun is to see what people pick out as a representation. I think children's drawings sometime come closest.

 

lochinvar

Lifer
Oct 22, 2013
1,687
1,632
Somewhere in the billiards of Sasieni, GBD and Dunhill there is billiard perfected. To me, the closest is the Dunhill LB.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
My first choice was/is the Benton, as mentioned in the earlier post, but my runner ups would be Chacom, Butz-Choquin, and other French straight billiards since France was the birthplace of the briar pipe and the source of most of the classic designs associated with traditional billiard English pipes and U.S. pipes.

 

rigmedic1

Lifer
May 29, 2011
3,896
75
Peterson X105. I think it is the perfect billiard pipe.

http://i1112.photobucket.com/albums/k492/jeepmedic1/photo4.jpg

 
May 31, 2012
4,295
34
uDbVnnx.png

I totally agree with Sablebrush...
This is a terrific question, in part because there is no such animal. There are a lot of billiard shapes and variants. Like many others, I thought the billiard shape to be the quintessential bore, even though, or maybe because, it's rigorous set of proportions made it the standard by which a carver would prove his prowess. Can't carve a proper billiard? Then you're a fake as a carver.

But I've learned to appreciate the subtleties between styles and the difficulties to be overcome in rendering those subtleties. There's no place to hide when carving the standard billiard shapes.

So who represents the archetypal billiard to me? No one. Who represents the best execution of billiard shapes for me? Genod, Comoy, Barling, Sasieni, Loewe, Dunhill, Chacom, and Kaywoodie. Magritte's pipe is a Genod. Dunhill's famous swans neck was a Genod design. I should buy me some Genods.
In my small world,

it'd be this Alden...
iBW0BiP.jpg


2vf0uw4.jpg

...and this Teipen:
38CcDmU.jpg


EvvAImb.jpg


 

thefalcon

Starting to Get Obsessed
Dec 23, 2012
241
2
Totally agree Troy, two beautiful examples of the Billiard. I do believe I drooled on the keyboard.
Cheers,--Eric

 

sparrowhawk

Lifer
Jul 24, 2013
2,941
219
Dunhill's shell billiard is probably the ideal best, but expensive: My ideal straight billiard is the Peterson 107, of which I own several: it has a large bowl, and thick briar around the bowl; a thick shank, band and a perfect fishtail. Of all the 107's produced by Peterson, probably the best is their Irish Harp with a silver band. I have three of these.

 

plugugly

Starting to Get Obsessed
Mar 9, 2015
280
32
Something bent and rusticated, if you think more English (if you're channeling Sherlock) or a straight, smooth brown billiard if you're channeling 1960's "my three sons"

 
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