Some of your favorite pipes along with Grandma's Piano is about to become contraband.

Scott Kline Blowfish Tomato with Ivory shank decoration.If you are like me, you have a number of fine smoking pipes that have ivory shank decorations. The value of these pipes is about to be rendered zero. Read on.

A Presidential Advisory Committee tasked with considering strategies to reduce trafficking in ivory plans to recommend a total ban on the sale of all ivory. This will include pre-ban ivory and antique ivory, even fossilized mammoth ivory.

What this means is that your ivory-keyed Grandma’s piano will be illegal to sell. Antique ivory in knives, guns, guitars, basses, musical instruments, pool cues, smoking pipes, netsuke, furniture, etc., will all be illegal to sell. This recommendation will reduce the value of precious collectibles and family heirlooms to nothing.

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Last Saturday

A portrait of me done by Scott Stultz last Saturday morning at the smoke shopSome days stick in one’s memory. They are not necessarily defined by joy, triumph, or tragedy, either. These days can be unremarkable by their appearances except that they hold a mirror up to one’s life and tell a story. They say, “This is where you are. This is who you are. And your character—all of it, good and bad—got you here. So pay attention.”

Last Saturday was one of those days in my life where events conspired to soften and to humble me. And is so often the case when these events spill from the calendar into memory, friends are at the center of the story.

I awoke early, knowing that my friend Scott Stultz would arrive at my home in the early morning. He had planned to strike out before dawn from Baltimore where he had spent the night. Although we speak on the phone often, it had been nearly six months since I’d seen Scott in person—a long time since we used to get together a couple times a month when I traveled near his home.

Scott had driven down for the day and an overnight. We had planned to meet another friend who was in town from Arizona for early coffee and subsequently join other friends for breakfast before heading to the smoke shop for our Saturday gathering.

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Preparing a Catalog for my Chicago Show Comoy Blue Riband Exhibit

Illness precluded my attending the Chicago Show last May. I was sorely disappointed at not being able to attend.

I was especially disappointed when I heard about and saw photos of George Amrom’s collection exhibit. I have repeatedly heard from people who saw the exhibit that it was truly an exhibit to remember and one of the best ever mounted at the Chicago show.

 Seeing George’s exhibit inspired me to approach Show Director Craig Cobine about exhibiting my Comoy Blue Riband collection. After many years, I finally have enough representative specimens to make such an exhibition worthwhile, especially for those pipe enthusiasts whose interest is in vintage British-made pipes.
 
So, I inquired of Craig as to whether or not there might be interest in my exhibiting. I was delighted to receive an invitation to exhibit my collection in response to my inquiry.

Because I was unable to attend the show—and I did not have the opportunity to experience the Amrom collection—it occurred to me that preparing a catalog of my exhibit would allow people who will not have attended the show to experience the exhibit, albeit in a different format.

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Announcing the 2014 Passion for Pipes POY: the Québec

Updated on Monday, November 25, 2013 at 11:31AM by Neill Archer Roan

1911 H. Comoy, Ltd. Catalog CoverThanks to Delaware collector Bob Herbert, I had the good fortune to see and study a copy of  H. Comoy & Co. Ltd.’s 1911 catalog, the first that the House of Comoy ever issued. It was a remarkable catalog for its day, replete with color cover and photographs of all the pipes the company offered its customers at the time. Imagine, this catalog is 103 years old!

As you might imagine, perusing the catalog was not unlike stepping into a time machine. Most of the shapes offered then were very different from what is offered today. While we might think of the depicted shapes as classic, they were actually progenitors of what we think of as classic shapes today. Over time, proportions have changed. Shanks and stems are not as beefy as they once were. Stem tapers are longer and more gradual. Button profiles are more refined. Even the smoke stream orifices changed from circular or oval to fluted and rounded rectangles.

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Meh...

Sobranie. After having smoked the Original White Mixture, 759, and Virginia No. 10, this name arouses respect that approaches veneration in my mind.

So, you can imagine my anticipation when I saw my friend Jon Guss pull the above-depicted tin from his bag. I’d read about this blend in my research on the brand. I knew that its origins were that it was a blend originally reserved for the Directors of Sobranie. I figured that I was in for a treat.

When Jon cracked the tin, a sweet pungence filled the air. As I put my nose close to the greasy, sugary paper insert, I remarked, “This smells like Christmas in a tin.” Adam Davidson sniffed the tobacco, shaking his head yes. “This is like a really good fruitcake,” he observed. Those of us around the table gazed at the tin like a gaggle of chain-gang refugees watching a prime rib being carved. Was there drool? I’m not sure; I couldn’t look away from the tin as Jon peeled the insert away from the nearly black tobacco ribbons. The insert was bearded with ribbons; the tobacco plateau looked dewy because there were so many crystals littered atop it.

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