GH Zhang

Guo Hui Zhang

GH Zhang nomenclature and stamping example from David S. Huber's "01" Dublin shape. Image courtesy Smoker's Haven.

GH Zhang (stylized as GH.ZHANG) is a brand of pipes created by Guo Hui Zhang. The brand follows a similar production model to those of post-war pipe manufacturers such Stanwell, Chacom, Tsuge, and Brebbia, with each of its designs being commissioned from notable figures in the international artisan community. GH Zhang pipes are manufactured in the Zhang Guo Hui Workshop in Zhejiang, China.

In addition to the GH Zhang brand, the Zhang Guo Hui Workshop also produces pipes in more traditional, Anglo-French shapes, using the same production techniques as the former. The workshop's traditional shapes are sold through the sister brand Balefire Stage.

Background

Early-1960s Pibe-Dan catalog featuring designs from Hans Hartmann and Sven Knudsen.

1992 promotional leaflet for Stanwell's 50th anniversary 6-day set detailing the design origins of each shape included.

Since at least the late 1940s, pipe and tobacco manufacturing companies and individual, artisan pipe-makers have formed business partnerships in the design and production of tobacco pipes. Unlike in earlier business models where those involved in a pipe's production remained all but anonymous (with the key exception of company founders and figureheads), post-war pipe marketing increasingly made reference to individuals who had contributed to the production process in one way or another. Danish companies such as Stanwell, Pibe-Dan, and W.Ø. Larsen capitalized on the emergence of a new class of pipe-making artisans by enlisting the services of the latter in increasingly publicized arrangements. Stanwell developed a highly successful practice of commissioning designs from innovators and industry leaders in artisan pipe-making, such as Sixten Ivarsson, which enabled them to mass produce shapes and styles of pipes that were in high-demand. Pibe-Dan and the early W.O. Larsen were initially more explicit than Stanwell in highlighting the individuals—referred to as "artists"—behind the pipes they produced or carried, though in the decades that followed, Stanwell's collaborators would feature more and more prominently in promotional materials. Outside of Denmark, the rise of the artisan pipe-maker and the successes of Danish artisan-company collaborations led to a number of similar projects, albeit typically on a much smaller scale. Brebbia's Designers Series, for example, featured contributions from Rainer Barbi, Otto Pollner, Martin Vlasák, and others; Chacom is notable for its partnerships with French artisans, such as Pierre Morel, and artisans outside of France, such as Tom Eltang; and Germany's Dan Pipe worked closely with Holmer Knudsen and Oldrich Jirsa.

GH.ZHANG catalog introduction for Dirk Heinemann designs. Image courtesy Guo Hui Zhang.

GH Zhang may be seen as a continuation and further formalization of this model. While China's Guo Hui Zhang was originally in the business of importing briar and other pipe-making materials, he quickly became interested in the processes through which pipe companies (like the above mentioned) have been able to replicate at scale the kinds of designs typically found in artisan pipe-making. This was something that Zhang wanted to pursue himself. By 2017, Zhang had set up a workshop in China's Zhejiang province and had began discussions with a number of artisans in and outside of China (including Ping Zhan, Michail Revyagin, and Boris Starkov) regarding the logistics of such an operation. In 2019, production began on GH Zhang brand pipes.

Production Model

"...many of us—pipe makers—get paid for our work, once, and they go and they're resold or something like that... [but] we don't see any of that, and that's fine. So, it was an opportunity to get a little more stable income besides the feast and famine that the rest of our world is." - Jeff Gracik (J. Alan Pipes)

The GH Zhang production model can be summarized as follows:

1. An artisan from the international pipe making community is commissioned to provide a design for a GH Zhang pipes, which is then licensed to the company.
2. In the Zhang Guo Hui workshop, rough shaping of pipes based on the licensed design is carried out using CNC machines. The remainder of the shaping and finishing is performed by hand.
3. Finished pipes are distributed for sale and royalties are paid to their designer based on the quantity of each design manufactured.
   

Stamping

Common GH Zhang stamps. Example pipe image courtesy SmokingPipes.com.

Designs and Designers

Ping Zhan

• 

  01

• 

  02

• 

  03

• 

  04

• 

  05

• 

  06

Balefire Stage

• Examples courtesy Smokers Haven.
• 
• 
•