I recently acquired two Italian made pipes marked simply “JR” and “Italy” which I have found were made as house brand pipes for JR Cigars in the USA. The first one, a nice Author shape, is already listed on the Pipe Inventory page as it really didn’t need restoration. The second of the pair needed…
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Here is the second of two John Calich pipes I picked up over the summer. While the first one, written about HERE, was a smaller, fully rusticated pipe, this Bent Billiard is more typical of John’s work in that it features a combination of smooth and rustic finishes. This series of pics shows the pipe…
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This Bent Billiard is the first of two pipes by Canadian pipe carver John Calich that I acquired as part of an estate collection earlier this summer. Calich was a master pipe carver who operated in the Greater Toronto area for 40 years, hand carving each pipe from start to finish. Pipes sold through dealers…
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I’ve been doing a number of simpler estate pipe cleanups lately, so I guess that means it’s time for a more in-depth project. Today I’m dealing with the last of three Aldo Velani pipes recently acquired as part of an estate lot, this one an Executive series 292 Bent Apple. Aldo Velani pipes are what…
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Today’s estate pipe restoration is a bit more esoteric than some of my recent posts. I’m working on a rather petite figural meerschaum pipe carved into the likeness of a lady’s head. I would tentatively date this pipe to the latter half of the 19th Century, though there are no markings on the pipe or…
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I acquired three Aldo Velani pipes as part of a recent estate purchase; the first needed very little work and is already available on the Pipe Inventory page. The third pipe needs some more substantial help to get back into fighting shape and will be the subject of another blog post. Today, I’m dealing with…
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This pipe caught my eye recently while digging through my box of refurbs-in-waiting. Made by Gardesana, this “Pecher” series Bent Egg is what I call a Mini-Warden, a pipe fitted with a shorter version of a Churchwarden stem. Here is the pipe as it looked when I first brought it to the worktable. Overall, it…
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This is another of the pipes I picked up over the summer, a good-looking silver-mounted Savinelli Extra 2005 Apple. The pipe came to me in decent estate condition. It was dirty, of course, with a fair bit of dust, grease and wax jammed into the wire-rusticated finish. The chamber carried a light cake, and there…
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Those of you familiar with the Brigham Shape Chart will already be aware that Brigham made many of the classic pipe shapes in a number of different sizes. Prior to the shift to European production, Brigham Billiards came in four regular sizes (Shapes 01, 02, 03 and 04) with several variants, including Tall, Chimney and…
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This week’s estate pipe restoration is the fitting of a new stem to a Hardcastle’s Seaton Billiard stummel, which came to me as part of a large lot of pipes for repair. As this series of pics shows, the stummel was in very good, if not unsmoked, condition. It had clearly been without a stem…
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