Wedding anniversary and another estate PAD attack

[mluyckx]

I'm on the hunt for old Hilson pipes and found one in this set. Reached out to the seller, put in a "best offer" and got the lot for $60. Some work needed on the stems, but the bowls are in pretty good shape. Some good soaking, cleaning and polishing should do the trick I think.
7 pipes, or roughly $9 a piece. $12 if I include shipping.
The lot includes an Ehrlich, a Weber, a Granhill and a Mac Duff. And obviously the Hilson I wanted. And then there's two that I can't find a lot on called "Seville" and "Divonne" but those may be the models, not the maker.
The Seville may be a Grabow made pipe.

Seville - Imported by MC from GIGI Pipe in Italy - Grabow made them and Hillcrest as a copy - Darn good pipe."

The Divonne remains a mystery.

Overall, nice wedding anniversary gift to me today ! Happy 13th anniversary :puffpipe:

 

[jameral]

Happy Anniversary! It's always nice to find what your looking for. The icing on the cake is that's it's on your special day. :D

 

[uberam3rica]

Happy anniversary! I love the grain on the second one from the bottom

 

[nsfisher]

happy anniversary mate, and great score! i like that bottom one

 

[ssjones]

Nice buy. I was looking into a Ehrlich last night, an interesting story/maker from Boston. Which one is the Ehrlich (my bet- 2nd walnut billiard from the top). Looking forward to seeing the "after" pix, have fun but don't forget to take some anniversary time off....a man needs other interests....
Ehrlich Story

 

[mluyckx]

Paul,
Danger ahead .. I'm a history buff and I've sank my teeth in the history of Belgian pipe makers ;-) So read on at your own risk.
There are no more mass production active pipe makers in Belgium. Hilson was the last one until 1980. Hilson is still being made but by the Royal Dutch Tobacco Pipe Company in the Netherlands.
Another company, Vinche, still exists, and originally made meerschaums. Apparently in 1977, right before Hilson was acquired, a couple called "Koopmans" got engaged with Vinche and is reviving the company, now called Vinche-Koopmans, to make briars. So I'm not 100% sure (yet) whether they still or are making pipe again. I found some out there, even new ones, but am not 100% sure where they are made. I'll PM you a link. It's pretty scarce though.
There is however a young Belgium pipe maker / artist by the name of Dirk Claessen. Gorgeous work, but for now, out of my league. You can find his personal webpage at this link (click here). His work is phenomenal.
That's it on the Belgian pipes for now ;-)

 

[mluyckx]

Al,
I think the Weber is the top one. Hard to tell from these pics. I'll post better ones before and after
And I just got an email from a guy I was talking to on the other side of the Atlantic. He's sending me two cleaned up estates. Just under $20 each.
Hilson Bolero

Albertson

Darn.. this is the best anniversary ever !
But it does exhaust this months budget.. again ..

 

[cyndi]

Wow! What a great lot! I can't wait to see them all shined up and pretty. :D
And Happy #13! Shaun and I will be there in July.

 

[crpntr1]

Great looking buy..could I ask the name of the style of the bottom pipe in the first picture?

 

[mluyckx]

I'd call it a bent Dublin