New Vintages Project Publications

Pipe scholars Ben Rapaport and Jon Guss have been hard at work creating new publications for the Vintages project. There are not one, but two new articles ready for your study and enjoyment.

For meerschaum fans, Ben’s article includes a redacted transcription of a rare oral history recalling noted meerschaum carver Gustav Fischer and his son.  The interview was conducted with Gustav Senior’s daughter-in-law, Anna, a few years before her death.

Jon’s article explores strategies and common errors in dating 19th Century pipes and tobaccos. It’s a thoughtful and clear presentation on how to apply methodologies used in other disciplines to improve our own accuracy.

These publications are real gifts to our hobby. I hope you enjoy them and treasure them as much as I do.

A Wartime Treasure

Updated on Sunday, November 4, 2012 at 8:20AM by Neill Archer Roan

For many years, I have sought to acquire a Dunhill Shell pipe made during Great Britain’s World War II Years, 1939-1945. Dunhill early 1940s vintage pipes are exceedingly hard to come by, especially if one is at all interested in a particular finish or a particular shape. I am interested in both shape and finish,  focusing on finding a Prince-of-Wales, a lovat, or a zulu in Dunhill’s Shell Briar finish.

Finally, after years of looking, I acquired the above-depicted 1943 Dunhill FET 24 shape: the straight Prince-of-Wales in the Shell finish.

This particular specimen is in mint condition. The stampings are exceedingly crisp. The stem is absolutely free from oxidation and tooth impressions or scratches. Finally, the pipe has been handled so little that its sandblasted briar ridges are still sharply defined, and Dunhill’s signature black over-stain has not been worn off though handling to reveal the red color lurking underneath. In short, the pipe looks like it might have come off Dunhill’s line very recently as opposed to 1943.

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The Package

Late Thursday afternoon the doorbell rang. I wondered why the mail carrier was at the door. To my knowledge, we weren’t expecting anything. There was a package addressed to me from an old friend who I have been corresponding with for years.

This friend is a gentleman in his seventies who has, in his collection, a pipe I have tried to buy (a Comoy Blue Riband Lovat) with no success for a long, long time. Although he thought about selling it to me four years ago, he decided not to because his wife bought the pipe for him for a birthday present - a good reason we would all agree. I recently received a letter from him apprising me that he had willed the pipe to me and that I would receive it and a couple of others when he passed on.

Comoy Blue Riband Ad Panel from in-box BrochureWhen I wrote back, I told him that I really hoped his death was not necessary for me to pry the pipe out of his hands. I was trying to lighten the moment, but I worried that something was wrong because he’d also written me recently about an upcoming surgery, but with no details as to why the surgery.

I had received packages from him in the past. Among other things, he is also a pipemaker, and a pretty darn skilled one at that. I have two pipes that he’s made and they are both lovely pipes that smoke wonderfully. I wondered if there was another of his creations in the box.

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On price, value, meaning, and the scourge of flame wars

One morning twenty-five years ago I found myself interviewing a prospective new arts marketing hire. “Why do you want to work here?” I inquired of the woman seated across the conference table.

“I love the arts,” she responded. “We all have the same information,” she continued. “We act on what we value.”

She got the job. As impressed as I was by her brevity and her clarity, her insights about human nature equipped her admirably for a career in marketing. Some people spend their entire lives and never learn that behavior is a consequence of what and how we value. They tell themselves that they are rational creatures, that they act in response to the dictates of logic and fact. While the rational self is certainly important, recent advances in brain science tell us that it is the emotional self that is the decision-maker within us.

This is not to say that reason doesn’t matter. Far from it. We use our rational skills to understand and navigate the world. We use them to make sense of ourselves and others. But, in a contest, the rational self will often find itself overmatched by the emotional self. So it is with facts and values, too. In many contests, facts find themselves overmatched by values.

The current political milieu exemplifies what I’m writing about here. Everyone has access to the same facts, yet liberals and conservatives resist creating solutions from any mutuality of purpose. Instead, each side demonizes the other. Conciliation and compromise are characterized as weakness or as “selling out.” These polemics are driven by extreme conflicts in values.

We can observe the same dynamics at play on a smaller scale within the pipe world when people argue about the relative merits of high-priced versus low priced pipes. The heat and anger that emerges during these discussions – especially the flame wars that ensue inside online pipe communities – is so extreme as to render the pipe smoker’s amiable and thoughtful persona a ridiculous fiction.

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The William Tell Overture

Earlier this week, when I was in Pennsylvania on business I had the pleasure of joining my friend, artist Scott Stultz, in his studio for an evening of conversation, good tobacco, and fine Scotch whisky.

To sit in my friend Scott’s studio is a feast for the senses, not the least of which is the eyes. The space is full of art, books, pipes, finely crafted furniture, sketch books, and the detritus of a passion for the quirky and the tactile. Sitting there in Scott’s hard rock maple armchair, there are so many compelling things at which to gawk that I felt a little like a sailor at a Rockettes show; the only reason to move my eyes was a likelihood that they would alight on something even better.

Next to an old pipe rack and array of briars, I spied the remarkable old figural pipe you see depicted in photographs here. Masterfully rendered in briar wood is this smokable bust of William Tell, the storied archer of old whose legend is known by children around the world.

“What is that figural pipe made of?” I inquired of Scott as I scrutinized it from some ten feet away. To me, at that distance, I assumed that the pipe was cast of clay or some similar medium.

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