GBD

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GBD Estate Pipe Unique Magnum Sized Bent Champaigne Sitter from Smoker's Haven

GBD Estate Pipe Unique Magnum Sized Bent Champaigne Sitter from Smoker's Haven

French made New Era, courtesy G.L.Pease Collection

New Standard, bent Rhodesian (#9242) shape, courtesy G.L.Pease Collection

Left 2 are French, righ is English, Colossus, 7.25" long, courtesy Derek Green

GBD Estate Pipe Virgin Bent Billiard 508 from Smoker's Haven

Courtesy Smoker's Haven

GBD Shoreline Billiard from Iwan Ries

A brief history of GBD

The company was founded in Paris France in the 19th century by Ganeval, Boundier and Donninger who were no longer associated with the company by the turn of the century. By the time they left the GBD name was well established and thus retained.

In 1903 an additional factory was built in England and ran by Oppenheimer. The Paris factory moved to Saint-Claude in 1952. Since 1981 the majority of GBD pipes come from the English factory. At about that same time GBD merged with Comoys, since then all production for both GBD and Comoy comes from a single factory.[1]

The premium lines of GBD offered very good values, and are considered amongst the most affordable high end pipe of the 1960's and earlier and a rival in quality, design, and price to Dunhill. Smokers' Haven was the main retail supplier for GBD's in the US until the early 1980's.

GBD produced consistently well made pipes, almost entirely of Algerian or Grecian briar. In the late 1960's to late 1970's, they introduced the "Collector" and "Unique" lines, made primarily by Horry Jamieson, who had carved for Barling for many years, and was skilled in freehand design. Older GBD pieces are excellent smokers and unique in design. They did an excellent executions of classic pipe shapes, as well as some beautiful freehands in the "Unique" line. [2]

The following list comprises the better grades in descending order:

Pedigree, Pedigree I, Pedigree II, Straight Grain, Prodigy, Bronze Velvet, Virgin, Varichrome, Prestige, Jubilee, New Era, Prehistoric, International, Universe, Speciale Standard, Ebony, Tapestry, New Standard, Granitan, Sauvage, Sierra, Penthouse, Legacy, Concorde.

Circa 1973 chart of lines

Virgin: "Only the finest of closely grained briar is utilized for this exceptional pipe. Natural finish"

Century: "A golden finish created to celebrate over a century of manufacturing the finest briar pipes."

New Era: "The beauty of this pipe's perfect briar is accentuated by the richness of the 'take-off' dual finish."

Prestige:"This pipe features a black handcut perspex mouthpiece which precludes discoloration and 'bad taste' after continual smoking. Only the finest of the fine-grained bowls are selected for this handsome matt virgin finished briar."

Prehistoric Perspex: "The deep sandblasting sillhouettes the grain in bold relief. The crystal clear mouthpiece creates an attractive contrast to the deep dark finish."

Dating GBDs

The following is from an A.S.P post by G.L. Pease dated 1996/05/18, and used by permission

"Dating GBD's is difficult. On older pieces with hallmarked silver bands, one can look up the hallmark. Once GBD and Comoy's became one, the linear "Made in England" stamp became the round "Made in London England" stamp used on all later Comoys.

Even the stem is not a sure-fire method. All the way through the 1960's and early 1970's, some pipes were fitted with molded stems, while others were hand-cut. Not all hand-cut stems are marked as such, and it doesn't depend on grade. (In my collection is one of the finest Pedigrees I've ever seen. It is un-smoked, made in the 1960's, and has one of the poorest molded stems I've ever seen on a production pipe! But, the wood would make a Dunhill DRH, or a Charatan Coronation blush!) That said, you can be assured that if the stem has a painted GBD rondelle, rather than a silver or brass one set into the stem, that it is a late-model, made after the merge with Comoy. These were the beginning of the dark-days for GBD (and Comoy, for that matter) in my opinion.

In some cases, the grade gives some clues. Xtras haven't been made since the 1930's, for instance, and the Century was first introduced some time in the 1960's or 1970's as I recall, from what scant literature I've been able to acquire. GBD introduced new shapes and dropped shapes almost every year it seems (an exaggeration, I'm sure), so if you had a lot of shape charts, you might be able to find a range."

Incidentally, G.L. Pease has a beautiful collection of older GBDs, as shown is this very interesting article called, "Pieces From My GBD Collection".

Current Production

Recent Production, 150 Year Celebration Billiard, Courtesy Smoker's Haven

Current GBD website. GBD is now made by Cadogan, who also make Comoy of London, Dr. Plumb's Perfect Pipes, BBB, and Orlik Pipes. [3]. Since the merger in 1981 with Comoys, GBD pipes are not considered to be of the quality they were under the original companies. Metal rondelles were discontinued after the merger with Comoy.

Contact Information

E-mail: mailto:cad@oppenheimers.co.uk
Tel: 08708 722 754 / 08708 722 755  Fax: 08708 722 750 (Trade customers only)

Offsite links

This site has some excellent GBD Model Information

Here is a 1961 GBD Flyer from: Chris' Pipe Pages

Interesting thread on the: Gray Fox Forum