ЯВА МОСКВА ВС (JAVA MOSCOW top grade)

USSR, 1960s

The pipe born behind the iron curtain in the 1960s. The tobacco factory in Moscow was founded back in 1856. After the Bolsheviks putsch in 1917 the factory became a status of the leading USSR tobacco manufacturer (even a national symbol) and the name Java after the island in Indonesia and tobacco imported from that island. Not a secret that many Soviet leaders – from Stalin till Brezhnev – preferred products exactly from this this factory.

Typical smoking pipes in USSR were made of fruit wood like pear wood or cherry wood. But Java managed to find a source of good briar and set up production of briar pipes. Smoking qualities of the Ява Москва (“Java Moscow”) pipes were highly appreciated by smokers and as any other good products these pipes were always in short supply.

Production of smoking pipes continued until late 1980s, in 1994 the factory was acquired by British American Tobacco and closed in 2012.

Todays pipe has an unique tulip shape (is it the first Soviet freehand?) and was lightly to moderately smoked, has a few more or less noticeable small scratches on the bowl, alltough we decided to save its original finish. The pipe box has noticeable wear after many years of storage. The pipe markings are “ЯВА МОСКВА (“JAVA MOSCOW”) ВС (высший сорт = top grade)”. The length is 12.9 cm (5.08″), bowl’s height is 3.8 cm (1.5″). External diameter of the bowl is 3.4 cm (1.34″), internal diameter is 1.6 cm (0.63″). The depth is 3.0 cm (1.18″) and this pipe weights 33 gr. Briar, vulcanite stem, air cooler.