Work In Progress: AFC, Byford and Squire

[Ahi Ka]

One of those days where the kids fall asleep in the van. Fortunately had packed some paper towels, my pipe net and a few estates to work on to kill time.

haven’t done any work on stems yet.

first up, AFC 1918. Have been chatting with @pitchfork about this, and am curious to hear if anyone else has a pipe marked in the same way.

who made that pipe lists A Frankau (owner of BBB) as the maker. Hallmarks show L.B (Louis Bloomfield, again BBB superstar) and Birmingham - consistent with other BBB pipes we both have of this era.

the bottom of the shank has a tiny fill on it, so my theory is that it is a BBB ‘own make’ that never made the grade

next up, byford London made.

from memory byford was purchased by orlik in the 20s (30s?), as they had a patent for an aluminium cooling system is the shank, which then became incorporated into the orlik line as the byford model.

I love blast contrast with the rim and the stem on this bad boy, is it hand cut? Also the slot bit is consistent with the era. I’m trying to figure out if this is actually a pre-orlik byford.

I also included a pic of the small squire lovat which was supposedly made by Peterson. Love this pipe. Crap loads of fills in it unfortunately, but will go to the top of my rotation. Lobe solid unpretentious smokers..watch out cobs. This guys coming for your spot.

 

[pitchfork]

This AFC pipe is really interesting - that's almost certainly a BBB band ("L-B" = Louis Blumfeld), and so "AFC" would stand for Aldoph Frankau & Co.

I've seen some of these "AFC" pipes before and they've been described as BBB/Frankau pipes. I was skeptical, but I think @Ahi Ka has settled this once and for all.

 

[Ahi Ka]

What I find interesting is that in the “who made that pipe” book, AFC is attributed to Aldolph Frankau whereas AF&Co (as we are used to seeing on BBB bands) is for A Frankau & Co.

I just don’t understand the difference between the two makers. It either doesn’t matter at all, or potentially alludes to an AFC line that sat outside of AF&Co ownership and therefore may not have been included in the acquisition by Oppenheimer.

 

[pitchfork]

What I find interesting is that in the “who made that pipe” book, AFC is attributed to Aldolph Frankau whereas AF&Co (as we are used to seeing on BBB bands) is for A Frankau & Co.

I just don’t understand the difference between the two makers. It either doesn’t matter at all, or potentially alludes to an AFC line that sat outside of AF&Co ownership and therefore may not have been included in the acquisition by Oppenheimer.

View attachment 55705

I think that's just a mistake/inconsistency in the book - I think your suggestion, that it's a seconds line, is probably correct. I've never seen a fill in a pre-1920 BBB.

 

[OzPiper]

Ahi Ka,
Love those pipes esp the AFC. If you ever want to pass that on send me an email please.