Poland, 1980s A creature of the legend of Polish pipe carving art. Ryszard Kulpinski along with Ryszard Filar started at Walat brothers workshop in 1956 (!). Over the next decades Walat pipes were developed into a highly respected national brand (“walatowka”) despite all possible complications connected with the communist regime: lack of materials (first of…
Denmark, 1980s At first sight the pipe belongs to the “Danish Golden era” freehands among with Preben Holm, Karl Erik, Holtorp creatures. And the mpst probably, this first impression is correct – the nomenclature says “SANALP | HANDMADE \ DENMARK”. At the same time our investigations guided us to the US trademark “SUNALP” registered by…
England, 1960s A pipe of the second Charatan’s higher grade next to the highest “Supreme”. It seems the pipe was made before 1960 – the shape number is located together with the nomenclature on the left side of the shank like it was on “family era” pipes. The encircled “L” is not a misunderstanding –…
Denmark The pipe inspired by the greatest pipe making genius! The shape number 08 (Bent with push mouthpiece) was designed by unsurpassed Sixten Ivarsson in 1950s. This lightly smoked pipe was made the earliest in 1970, but definitely still at the Danish factory.
USA, 1930s The history of Briarcraft began in 1910 in the State of New York and was rather short (the company existed till 1950), but really bright and memorable. In the pre WWII years Briarcraft was one of leaders of the USA pipe market, the second manufacturer after Frank’s Mediko company. Briarcraft pipes were highly…
Denmark, 1970-80s A nicely made Danish freehad from Erik Nording. The pipe comes the most probably from the 1970-80 when his old gradings system was applied (A to F and 1, 2, 3….). An absolutely fine sandblasted ring grain covers both the bowl and the shank!
England, 1960s An extremely rare and very interesting Charatan’s Make pipe of their best period (“Lane era”), i.e. late 1960s – early 1970s, when the glory of Charatan’s eclipsed all competitors, including Dunhill. At these times the twin bore stems were quite popular as their buttons were better resistant to teeth pressure. But anyway, most…
England Invicta started as a pipe repair service (“Medway Briars”). The careful choice of material, successful market policy and the carvers, experienced with Dunhill and Charatan, made the company one of the live legends of British briar. Invicta pipes is a product of cooperation of three masters – Colin Fromm (Charatan’s, Dunhill), Bill Ashton-Taylor (Dunhill,…
England, 1950-70s A very convincing and very lightly smoked traditional English billiard made by Comoy’s. Their McGahey series was made most probably for the McGahey tobacconist located in Exeter, Devon, UK. The shop is still open nowadays and you can easily find it on Google Maps. We haven’t been there yet, but every English tobacconist…
Ireland, 1910-15 This compact “military” billiard has recently celebrated its century. Except the name of the maker and the city name, there are no other markings on the pipe, in particular a designation of the manufacturing country (COM). Such situation was in 1910-15, when the Peterson patent has already expired, but the stamp “Made in…