...recently I finally found one of my White Whales, an oldtimey All-Briar.
Of course, I was hoping for a BBB or Loewe or something similar,
but I'll be content with a famous old English tobacconist imprint
RARE PIPE VINTAGE THE GUILFORD H SIMMONS FRENCH MAKE
It's quite a small pipe,
which I like.
Around 3 3/4" long and weighing 14.3g
There was a couple of disappointments though,
I was worried about the rim because it wasn't visible in the listing, and indeed it is a good bit charred, but not too bad -- and I had thought it was a standard billiard shape, but it's an odd "eyeball" shape, I don't know the proper term for it?
All in all,
I'm extremely happy.
These things are hard to come by in decent condition.
Another thing of note is how well the briar stem bit kept intact even with obvious moderate smoking.
I have seen a few All-Briars that were absolutely chewed up, but that's the same with vulcanite too, some smokers are just chewers. The owner of this pipe smoked it well, yet was careful enough not to badly damage it.
There seems to be a misconception out there about briar stems being fragile or something, or so soft that they become malformed with use, but my experience with them has been grand!
I find them to be exceedingly hard-wearing and supremely comfortable.
A wild guess would date this pipe to the Teens to early Twenties,
so it's a wonderful survivor!
Anyway,
here be the pipe:
These pipes were popular it seems because they were listed in some of the old catalogs.
Since it was common for the British pipe companies during that period to used already-turned stummels from France, I'd think it highly likely that many of the All-Briars sold by the British makers may have originated there, and I'd also reckon that the idea was a French innovation --- I'd love to have some concrete evidence, but the topic is pretty niche specific and a little esoteric.
Regardless,
it seems that the style fell out of favor by the 20's at least and never show up after that.
The 1910 Loewe catalog has quite a few of them,
including a couple more I didn't photograph...
The 1912 BBB catalog also lists them,
but just says "assorted shapes"...
I'm happy to have finally found myself a good example.
Most likely,
it will fall into the hands of George Dibos (if he accepts the project) because I'd love to see it gloriously restored!
:
:
Of course, I was hoping for a BBB or Loewe or something similar,
but I'll be content with a famous old English tobacconist imprint
RARE PIPE VINTAGE THE GUILFORD H SIMMONS FRENCH MAKE
It's quite a small pipe,
which I like.
Around 3 3/4" long and weighing 14.3g
There was a couple of disappointments though,
I was worried about the rim because it wasn't visible in the listing, and indeed it is a good bit charred, but not too bad -- and I had thought it was a standard billiard shape, but it's an odd "eyeball" shape, I don't know the proper term for it?
All in all,
I'm extremely happy.
These things are hard to come by in decent condition.
Another thing of note is how well the briar stem bit kept intact even with obvious moderate smoking.
I have seen a few All-Briars that were absolutely chewed up, but that's the same with vulcanite too, some smokers are just chewers. The owner of this pipe smoked it well, yet was careful enough not to badly damage it.
There seems to be a misconception out there about briar stems being fragile or something, or so soft that they become malformed with use, but my experience with them has been grand!
I find them to be exceedingly hard-wearing and supremely comfortable.
A wild guess would date this pipe to the Teens to early Twenties,
so it's a wonderful survivor!
Anyway,
here be the pipe:
These pipes were popular it seems because they were listed in some of the old catalogs.
Since it was common for the British pipe companies during that period to used already-turned stummels from France, I'd think it highly likely that many of the All-Briars sold by the British makers may have originated there, and I'd also reckon that the idea was a French innovation --- I'd love to have some concrete evidence, but the topic is pretty niche specific and a little esoteric.
Regardless,
it seems that the style fell out of favor by the 20's at least and never show up after that.
The 1910 Loewe catalog has quite a few of them,
including a couple more I didn't photograph...
The 1912 BBB catalog also lists them,
but just says "assorted shapes"...
I'm happy to have finally found myself a good example.
Most likely,
it will fall into the hands of George Dibos (if he accepts the project) because I'd love to see it gloriously restored!
:
:
