LOEWE Filigree 904
England, 1976-81
It would be very much boring if everything was unambiguous and transparent with pipes origin history. But, fortunately, not all producers behaved as Dunhill with their obligatory nearly hundred years stamped year suffixes (however, Dunhill was not always pedantic too :-)). Here is, for example, a very rare (some collectors write “extremely rare”) Loewe & Co model. The marking “London W.” specifies that the pipe has been made at family London factory in Haymarket. At the same time hallmarks on a collar specify London 1981, i.e. after the acquisition of the company (approximately in 1976).
Actually such case is not unique for Loewe, there’s a good analysis of similar issues on pipedia.org, and there are even available in the Internet selections of the similar collected pipes. That’s very likely that Loewe’s own production could proceed some more years after the acquisition, so the bowl was made by carvers still in the same workshop on Haymarket. Or the bowl may belong to the last years before the acquisition, and the collar (and probably, the stem) were made later. In any case it’s the extremely rare collectable sample!
The pipe markings are “(L&Co) \ FILIGREE”, “904 \ LOEWE \ LONDON W.”, “Huber \ Munchen”. The length is 13.9 cm (5.47″), bowl’s height is 4.7 cm (1.85″). External diameter of the bowl is 3.7 cm (1.46″), internal diameter is 1.8 cm (0.71″). The depth is 4.1 cm (1.61″) and this pipe weights 39 gr. Briar, vulcanite stem, no filter. The chamber has been protected with a break-in coat.
