The Golden Pipe

[dragonslayer]

This action expired on Ebay with a minimum bid of $900. From the notes added it appears people were trying to make side deals outside Ebay. This is a gold encrusted Julius Vesz old briar pipe. These go for $3000 new, but didn’t check that out, just went on what was written.
How much would you pay for this pipe? Now doubt this is a collectors dream.

Here is the Ebay link and a video link of Julius himself, talking about how nobody will ever be able to make pipes because he has all the dead briar. Everything being produced today is green briar and “doesn’t smoke”. Could that be true? What an ego!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-encrusted-Julius-Vesz-old-briar-pipe-/110999321427?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19d8133b53

 

[redbeard]

Wow!!!! Insane stem!!! :worship:

 

[dragonslayer]

I thought it would sell $900 considering the costs of some of the pipes today. Look at Rad Davis pipes at $1200. To me it's beautiful and functional sculpture.
Craig

 

[bigboi]

Meh, not my cup of tea.

 

[taerin]

I'd probabley take it over to a pipe repair place and tell them to take all the gold off, I'd let them keep it as payment for their services as they refinish the pipe to get rid of all the flowery embroderment on it.
PS: We need spellchecker on this thing!

 

[spartan]

I think it's a beautiful pipe. Just couldn't bring myself to put flame to gold...
Also... the grain on this pipe isn't the least bit interesting.
I would have chose something a little more attractive. And then promptly kicked myself in the butt for covering up the grain with gold. haha.

 

[lifeon2]

I checked and as it turns out my name is in fact not huggy bear so no thanks.

 

[seamusjft]

It does look nice but the most I'm prepared to pay for a pipe is £100 (158 to my us brothers) and even then that would e like my Xmas and birthday present to myself. I know or should I say I believe to an extent that money can buy you quality in some cases but I like my petes. They serve me just good. I have bids on a couple of peterson Sherlock series pipes but with them my max bid is £50.

I'd like a dunhill. I think when the time comes for me to spend my magic ton on a briar it will be an estate dunhill.

 

[numbersix]

my name is in fact not huggy bear so no thanks.

lol!
I haven't heard of the maker - but that doesn't mean much. Unfortunately the flowery bowl is a bit too "bling-bling" for me.

 

[schmitzbitz]

Here is the Ebay link and a video link of Julius himself, talking about how nobody will ever be able to make pipes because he has all the dead briar. Everything being produced today is green briar and “doesn’t smoke”. Could that be true? What an ego!

If anyone believes that, I've got a great deal on some Oceanfront property in Alberta and Idaho for you...
Seriously though, think about it for a minute. If you cut down a tree, does it continue to exist? And what happens to a tree (or shrub) that has died in your yard - would you expect it to grow denser, while the grain pattern grows tighter? No, you'd expect it to rot - and the same process happens with the heath shrub from which our burls are harvested - in fact, moreso, as the burl sits against the ground.

As for the green wood, I can't think of a pipe-manufacturer, be they high-end artesians or entry-level, who are carving uncured burls. Hell, if you watch some of the SM Frank videos, you'll see them working on bins of blocks that were harvested fifty-plus years ago (and these go into a blister pack, for sale at your local drug-store for $880 less than this guys asking price).
But don't listen to me, take it from an expert...in December 2011, this very topic was raised in the 'Ask G.L. Pease' column. This is what he had to say:

Dead Root briar is a subject that has been beaten, if you’ll pardon me, to death. Some insist the legends are true, while others (especially briar cutters, who really ought to know, and many pipe makers who laugh when they hear the term) tell me that once the shrub dies, the burls are almost instantly attacked by decomposers (molds and fungi, beetles, bacteria), and within a very short period, are rendered unsuitable for pipe making. In fact, at least today, they don’t even harvest these because of the considerable effort involved, and the low probability of any useable wood being found within them.

The term most likely found its way into use in the early part of the Twentieth Century through the marketing genius of Alfred Dunhill when he sought a way to differentiate exceptionally grained pipes from the rest. At the time, grain was not as highly valued as it is today, so making this distinction allowed him to sell these pipes for premium prices. The term stuck, and the legend has been promulgated by a few others since to differentiate their best pipes from the run of the mill.

The one thing we can be sure of is that by the time a block of wood is crafted into a pipe, it is most certainly and surely dead; in effect, all pipes are made from dead root.

And if you're still sold on the whole DRB thing, you should talk to Mr. Mark Tinsky about the amazing cloudburst pipe; revealed to the world by Dr. Fred Hanna here (link to full article):

The innovative aforementioned pipe-smoking material is made from newly discovered "Ultra-Dead" ancient, paleolithic, fully petrified and rock-hard Manzanita briar burls recently uncovered in the Badlands of South Dakota, a site noted for dinosaurs and other fossils. This is a variation of briar that is not merely a few hundred years old. It is hundreds of thousands of years old. Early smoking experiments have shown that this material, when heated, imparts a hauntingly rich and yet familiar flavor to tobacco that is reminiscent of...chicken.

 

[taerin]

You hit the nail on the head! That guy was blowing smoke to push his products, good marketing ploy for idiots with money.

 

[cigrmaster]

Any goldsmith will mark the gold either 14kt or .585 which designates the gold to be 14kt. If there are no markings then as far as I am concerned it is gold filled crap. Julius can take his dead root and stick it where the sun don't shine. I would never buy one of his pipes personally.

 

[piperl12]

Dead Root Briar is BS I own one of Julies's pipes and while it is a decent smoker, it is not any better than any other in my collection. Certainly does not stand up to Dead Root hype. I didn't even know about the hype when i bought the pipe. At the time I was looking for a small pipe as a dress pipe. I have met Julies and to be honest he is a very knowlegable and nice man. He owns a shop that has been in the Royal York Hotel in Toronto for years and sells his own pipe line, select tobacco's and metal die cast soldiers. I think one of his greatest acomplishments is his raindrop shape. They sit really well in your mouth and hang perfectly for those of us who smoke and work at the same time. Too bad the dead root briar thing happened at all it has really given him a black eye among other pipe makers when we should be celebrating an amazing carver will very cool history. Does he have an ego...sure he does but most artists I have met have a bit of an ego I think it comes with the territory.

 

[dragonslayer]

@Piper Oh his skill and pipes and shop are awesome, I just found the video funny. Hell his used pipes sell on Ebay for a couple hundred a piece. Not many pipes get that, even Dunhill.
Craig

 

[ohiopuffer]

The stem on that pipe is really cool.

 

[foggymountain]

I think it is junky looking and would much prefer a plain old Dunhill Bruyere bent billiard.

 

[rmbittner]

Not my style, either. I don't go for metal on pipes at all -- other than the sterling band on a Peterson -- and this one just goes way over the top for me. And with a metal ring about the bowl, I can guarantee I'd never smoke this. I'd display it as a pretty curiosity, but nothing more.
Bob

 

[hobie1dog]

Thanks for the picture of it.

 

[rcstan]

I like the style, but not the shape of the bowl. The stem color is cool. If I had that sort of money to spend on a pipe, I'd give him 200 tops, if the gold is real I can scrap it and get my $$ out of it then have a plainish pipe :puffpipe: