Augsburger: Difference between revisions

Aged 17 '''Frank Augsberger''' came down from Illinois in 1976 to apprentice at Jack H. Weinberger's [[JHW Pipes]] in West Caldwell, New Jersey. His mother had done the necessary negotiations, procured a flat and a car and everything else. The young man didn’t have any time at all, he was impatient and hasty and had the wildest conceptions about pipes. In a blue hour he once made a thing which his colleagues named "The Monster of Loch Ness" and even made JHW shake his head. Deeply frustrated Augsburger went back home after approximately six months. Nevertheless the time spent at JHW’s wasn’t completely wasted, because he became quite a good pipe maker years later.

Frank Augsberger made pipes from appr. 1978 - 1987, living in Chicago and later in Lombard, Illinois. In the early years of his career he organised some private showings and sales. Two are known: the first was on December 10th, 1978 and the second on April 27th, 1980. Then a serious illness forced him to put down the tools. He passed away untimely in 1995.

Many of his pipes left the workshop without any stampings. The reasons are not really known, but obviously it was not for quality issues. Some pipes he stamped "Augsberger" (in script) + "USA". Others showed a tiny round gold plate on the stem reading "NATURAL WORLD" + "HAND MADE". The same text was stamped on the buttom of the shank where it connects to the stem.