Third pipe today is an unmarked German cutty packed with one of my newest favorites: GL Pease's Penny Farthing. This pipe was part of a lot of 10 unmarked pipes from the same manufacturer I bought many months ago.
The seller said they're from the 1960's and came from the family of an old pipe seller in Germany. He had over 100 of these pipes, and most of them had this shape:
They're almost certainly rejects... likely rejected because they were over-drilled (from the pictures, and inspecting the ones I bought, the airhole through the shank to the bowl hit the other side of the bowl slightly in all of the pipes). But, aside from the very slight over-drilling, these pipes are near perfect in every other way. None of them have any pits or fills or any flaws at all. They're all smooth, nicely grained, feather light pipes. That in itself is odd.
So I assume it was a large manufacturer... because who else would have the ability to reject all of those perfect pipes with lovely grain? That's a lot of expensive briar just tossed away. 100 pipes, at least, probably more... all with the same error, means it likely happened over a relatively short time period. I'm guessing it was a mistake with the machine setting or maybe there was a new worker and that whole group of pipes were over-drilled during one shift or something.
I asked the seller, but he knew very little, aside from that they were made in the 1960s, and he thinks they could be Vauen pipes. I don't know what makes him think that other than Vauen is a big German maker.
But what else could they be? Well, who were major German pipe makers during that time period? I've been looking for similar styles of pipe from that time period and country, but no luck yet. I just enjoy mysteries.