Unsmoked Estates: how rare are they?

[sirwilliam]

Hey all, long time lurker first time poster.
One of my favourite hobbies is checking out flea markets. Here in France they're pretty impressive. I'm always hunting for pipes.
Anyway, I stumbled across a handful of unsmoked pipes at the back of a dusty shop. A couple of briars and a meerschaum. One caught my eye. According to the shop owner it's from the 50s. It stood out because of it's little sitter 'nub' on the bottom. It's pretty light too. I was surprised to find it.
It needs a coat of wax, and I'm pretty sure the stem isn't original. But not a bad buy at $15.

I have a question: how rare are unsmoked estate pipes like this? Most of the ones I come across have chewed up stems, scorch marks and a layer of cake.

 

[gphenry]

The online retailers seem to always have some.
Interesting you should ask this question as I am actually listening to a recent Pipe Smoking Radio Show. The host Brian addresses this in the Pipe Parts segment. Look up the show and give it a lesson.
Welcome

 

[huntertrw]

sirwilliam:
Welcome aboard! Unsmoked estate pipes can be vary rare. To wit, check out the Forums' thread titled "Vintage Bulldogs." Pipes are made to be smoked, and most typically are. When an estate piece is not, my guess is that there is a story behind it: perhaps the owner passed on before he/she could use it; perhaps it was a gift, and therefore a keepsake rather than a smoker; or perhaps it was put away and simply forgotten. The reasons may be manifold.
Yours looks like it should be a good smoker. Please let us know how it performs.

 

[mrenglish]

Nice pipe and a great score!
Be gentle with your first few bowls and try to avoid heating it up. Once you get a cake in it you will be fine.

 

[newbroom]

That's a shape called the Cutty. I think it mimics the old clay pipes. Yours looks like a terrific find!

 

[sirwilliam]

@gphenry: Thanks, I will give that one a listen later tonight!
@huntertrw: I'd love to know the story behind it! How does a pipe made 60 odd years ago go unsmoked all this time? Who did it belong to? Almost seems a shame to start now... but as you say, pipes are made to be smoked. Kinda makes me wish I'd snapped up the whole lot from that shop owner, but I've gotta leave finds for other flea marketers, right?
@mrenglish: Thanks! I'll be sure to pack something that smokes cool for the first few bowls.
@newbroom: Cool! Googling now!

 

[huntertrw]

sirwilliam:
Per newbroom's post above, here is an image of a clay cutty pipe:

 

[mcitinner1]

Several weeks ago I found 9 unsmoked drug store pipes on flea bay. The first 3 were badly stored but the others looked good.

In case anyone is curious, they have all been resold.

 

[sirwilliam]

Took the cutty out for a test run tonight, smokes beautifully, very cool. Surprisingly good for a pipe with no cake. Keeper!

 

[mso489]

The only quantitative way I have of judging the percent of estate pipes that are unsmoked is from being a regular window shopper on smokingpipes.com. This isn't definitive but gives a clue. Since I don't count and record the numbers of unsmoked pipes, I'd have to estimate it at about five percent. Not exotically rare but unusual. Then there are the lots of pipes they discover in factories and sell on their regular new pipe pages, but I'm not counting those. They fall somewhere in between. They've never actually appeared on the retail market, but they are many years past their manufacture, or most of it. I think some are finished with stems, but some have stems. You do see occasional high end pipes like Dunhills and fine artisanal pipes that are unsmoked. That always makes me write a short story in my head about how it came to be.

 

[rcstan]

Truly unsmoked ( never fired up by anyone ) estate pipes show up here and there. Old stock from a store, pipes someone bought new and never got around to smoking them, etc. Let's say I buy a new Shell Briar from SPC for my birthday ( upcoming in a couple of weeks ) and for some reason or other I don't get to actually smoke it, or keep it purely for investment purposes. I turn around and sell it back to SPC or your choice retailer eight months later. Since the retailer didn't get that pipe from the Dunhill distributor, they will list it as an "unsmoked estate".

 

[mso489]

I surmise that unsmoked pipes from private individuals are sometimes gifts to former pipe smokers, non-pipe-smokers who don't take it up, or purchases for or by pipe smokers who have a health situation and never smoke any more. Maybe a few are pipes given to pipe smokers who just don't like that particular pipe, or impulse purchases that the customer regrets and never smokes. There a lots of possible scenarios. Some people go on pipe buying binges and never smoke all the pipes they buy.

 

[zekest]

Someone please explain to me the difference between an "un-smoked estate" and "new old stock" except for the prior ownership part, unless the "prior ownership" is the part I'm missing.

 

[virginiacob]

I've occasionally come across an unsmoked estate pipe from time to time. The last two I bought were eBay finds, a Prince of Wales Kaywoodie (circa '68-'69) and a Wally Frank "Chadwick"(60's to early 70's I surmise). Always a fun find when you come across these vintage unsmoked pipes. Love your Cutty by the way. Great find! Congratulations!

 

[newbroom]

Some people go on pipe buying binges and never smoke all the pipes they buy.

In the past year I've bought more pipes than I care to count and I don't smoke them all.

I just kept bidding on the bay and won many auctions. One was for 9 pipes, very early on in this, my first year of pipe smoking. They arrived and were all 'unsmoked' imported briar Medicos. I just put them back in the box and kept them for a rainy day.

On occasion I've encountered a couple few more that came unsmoked. These remain in that condition.

I figure, some day, I'll be selling or trading for something else.

 

[michiganlover]

"Someone please explain to me the difference between an "un-smoked estate" and "new old stock" except for the prior ownership part, unless the "prior ownership" is the part I'm missing."
NOS to me means an item that was supposed to be sold, but for whatever reason was never purchased by a retail buyer. Could be the stock of a pipe store that closed, forgotten pipes tucked away in a factory corner, excess stock of a pipe store that has been open for a long time that is in storage and forgotten about, a former store left in a closed but mothballed state for many years (which is finally cleared out many many years later).
An unsmoked estate implies the pipe was purchased, and forgotten about: stored in a box, boxed up when someone died and left for years, displayed as part of a collection and later resold (likely when the original owner passed on), and so forth.
There could be a grey area in the two categories, for example someone like my grandfather who would buy all sorts of items at a discount, with the idea that he might need it someday, or could later resell it. When he passed, he had a garage full of lots of random stuff. The grey area occurs because while the item was purchased, it was purchased by someone who never had plans to use it for its intended purpose.

 

[maxx]

A pipe bought as a collectable so unsmoked, then sold to get something more desired, is my guess, for some.

 

[fishnbanjo]

I have purchased my share of unsmoked vintage pipes the oldest being a 99 y/o corn cob which I promptly remedied. I have to say that being that old it was more like a wooden pipe than a cob but an elegant smoke and I wish they were still made like this one. Your Cutty is rather striking and with that kind of age it may be made from Algerian briar which produced lovely smoking pipes, enjoy it and thank for sharing your find.

banjo

 

[mranglophile]

I like buying unsmoked estates, so far I have gotten a Comoy's Everyman from the 50/60's, a Lane era Ben Wade Brouge and a Dunhill Liverpool(which I shared on the site) I have smoked the first two as I received them and they are both great smokers. After much convincing I will be smoking the Dunhill as well, once I find a nice old can of Dunhill - Elizabethan Mixture.
I love the little cutty-esque shape of your find...enjoy!!

 

[tuold]

That is a very cool find! I would have taken that one home in a minute.
I like to think that every unsmoked estate has a story of some kind. Maybe the pipe was a gift from a loved one and the recipient didn't live long enough to enjoy it...some tragic accident or something (Or maybe he hated the pipe =)
The ones that come without boxes tend to get dinged up in drawers a bit over the years. Like this LHS Purex

When I opened this one it smelled like it had been stored in Grandma's dresser drawer for 50 years, heavy with the scent of lavender sachet.