Translations:Sasieni/57/en

Some Acknowledgments

Courtesy Doug Valitchka

*It is impossible to write an article such as this without a lot of help from other people, and indeed, I received a great deal of help from the pipe collecting community, from both the famous and the obscure. It never ceases to amaze me that I could call someone from out of the blue, and, upon identifying myself as a fellow pipe collector, have that person gladly, often enthusiastically, drop whatever he was doing and talk to me about pipes for an hour or more.

• An article like this is never truly finished. Just when I think I’ve got it all figured out, I’ll talk to another collector, or read another magazine article, or come across some bit of long hidden information, and be forced to reconsider my ideas. Should anyone have anything to add to this article, I would enthusiastically welcome your call. My office number is (617) 878-1300.
• Thanks first and foremost go to Theodore Justin Gage, former publisher of “The Compleat Smoker”, and Richard Carleton Hacker, author of “The Ultimate Pipe Book”. Both men graciously allowed me to quote from their published works, and gave generously of their time on three separate occasions each, even though neither of them was expecting a call from yours truly. Richard Carleton Hacker literally allowed his dinner to get cold one evening while he answered my many questions.
• Thanks are due to Jim Cooke, the Vermont alchemist without whom there would be far fewer estate pieces in our collections. Jim answered many questions concerning the inner workings of the Sasieni pipe, describing in almost torturous detail the steps involved in creating the Eight Dot stem.
• Many estate pipe dealers also gave generously of their time. Thanks go to Nikos Levin, Steve Leaders, and Jack Ehrmantraut, for discussing at length with me the current state of the Sasieni market.
• Of course, there is the pipe collecting community itself, that legion of relentless individuals who scour the dark places in search of collectible briar. Thanks to Red Coombes, who played a crucial role in helping me verify the very existence of the seemingly apocryphal Ten Dot Sasieni. Thanks also to Mike Reschke, the well known Parker collector who’s also pretty smart when it comes to Sasieni’s. Mike introduced me to Jim Copic, and what amazing conversations those were! I felt like I had hit the mother lode! Jim enthusiastically collects not only pipes but hard to find ephemera, and was an invaluable source of information about all kinds of obscure facts, including details of the Sasieni guarantee.
• And finally, thanks to the members of the Massachusetts based Sherlock Holmes Pipe Club, particularly our fearless leader, Col. Don Powers, who encouraged me to write this article when I myself had grave doubts about the project (”Aw shucks, Don! I don’t know nothin’ about writin’ in no fancy magazine!”), and who if fact got me started on the road to collecting Sasieni’s in the first place.