The Briar Trade: Makers, Manufacturers, and Brands That Time Forgot: Difference between revisions

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|[[Arlington]] Briar Pipe Corporation, Brooklyn, NY||Art-Craft Briar Pipe Company, Brooklyn, NY|||J. Bachmann Company, Chicago, IL

|W. H. Utter & Son, Olean, NY||[[VanRoy]] Company, NY, NY|||Viking Pipe Co., Greensboro, NC

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|Michigan||19|||Washington||1

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Paul identified more than 1,000 companies in 32 states, and he has yet to complete his research! The database is overwhelming, but the problems with it is that the directory word descriptions are vague or generic—i.e., “mnfr pipes,” “smok art,” “mnfr br, meer,”  “mnfr pat pipes,” “pipes,” and other ambiguous terms—so not only are the specific product lines not known, neither are their years of operation. Directories classified a company, if it was pipe-related, and some, as Paul indicates by the title, were probably importers, wholesalers, and distributors. There is also some redundancy in that more than one entry for a company appears in his database if it had either multiple, concurrent facilities at different addresses in a city, or its facility relocated frequently, according to each annual directory. Not all were involved in the manufacture of briars, and it’s difficult to discern who produced what, based on the minimal descriptors in these assorted directories. Any attempt at sorting or collation would certainly lead to faulty conclusions.  

Now I add to the mix with some from “over there” for comparison. First, what’s in print on the French pipe industry? Two books are from the noted briar pipe maker, Gilbert Guyot, both now out of print: ''Le Piper de Paris'' (1984), and ''Les Pipiers Français. Histoire et Traditio''n (1992). Both, intentionally, are broad treatises about the entire French pipe industry with too little historic detail about specific companies. Several companies had shops in Paris, among them LMB, Ganneval, Bondier & Donninger (later, Bondier, Ulrich & Cie/Bine, Marechal & Cie./A. Marechal, Ruchon & Cie), Goltsche (Guyot), Sommer Frères (R. Faivret, Successeur). Among the notable in the early days of St.-Claude, to mention a handful, were E. Buffard–Bontemps & Fils, Henry Dalloz, Alix Delacour, Ewa, L. Faton et ses Fils, Gefapip, G. Vincent-Genod, Guichard & Cie., Jeantet, Louis Lamberthod, Paul Lanier, Pierre Manzini, Lucien Morand, Henri Nicod, Prost & Sevenier, St. Claude Briar Pipe Co., Ltd., C. J. Verguet Frères, Vidaillet & Gros, Paul Viou, Emile Vuillard, Vuillermoz & Goujon, Wolf and Mathiss, among many others... names far from the tip of the tongue to anyone tracing the nascent French briar industry. Many of these facilities are now long shuttered, their machinery, tools, and stamping dies—all in perfect working order—were purchased by the late Alberto Paronelli, along with the machines, tools and, perhaps, the company archives, of a few Italian briar pipe manufactories, such as Rossi and Gallarte; all this stuff is on display at his home at Via del Chiostro 5, Gavirate, Italy, now converted into a museum.

How does one sort out St.-Claude’s extensive briar pipe industry? With this industry jumble, one of the many obvious difficulties in wrapping one’s arms around the early years of St.-Claude is how to catalog all these firms by country and inclusive years of operation. Who should claim dominion? For example, Francois Comoy’s first factory was in St.-Claude until Henri, one of his grandsons, moved it to London in 1879. Another example is the Jobey, once an English original, then an American standard, and now a St.-Claude-machined pipe. So it’s difficult to determine whether a particular maker should be considered French, English, or Franco–English. For an historic gem, a diagram of the marriage (or merger) of early 20th century French and British briar pipe makers is at http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/infos/connect-en.html. No one, to my knowledge, has attempted to develop a similar wiring diagram depicting the combines, consolidations, and takeovers of American briar pipe companies from the same period.  

Consider, next, England. This is how the Brits report history: “During the late 1850s, however, a new kind of pipe, the briar, or brier, found its way to England from Corsica via France” (B. W. E. Alford, ''W.D. & H.O. Wills and the Development of the U. K. Tobacco Industry,'' 1786-1965, 1973, 111). England has a long and storied tradition of makers and manufacturers beyond the iconic BBB, Barling, Bewlay, Charatan, Comoy, Dunhill, GBD, Loewe, Peterson, Sasieni, and a few other standards. It’s not easy to find all the early English companies in operation. Similar to the aforementioned problem with U.S. directories, parsing English reports is just as challenging. In an 1891 census of trade, profession, and employment, within the category of “Tobacconists, &c.”, are two broad subcategories, “Pipe Makers and Importers” and “Tobacco Pipe Manufacturers” (James Salmon, ''Ten Years’ Growth of the City of London'', 1891, 127). What’s the discrete difference, how does one differentiate one subcategory from another? The task became more daunting poring through a reference 30 years later, the (UK) ''Tobacco Year Book'' for 1921. Pages 59 and 60 list “Additional Pipes and Pouches, etc.,” and Pages 145–147 is a “List of Pipe, Pouch, Fancy Goods, etc., Brands.” Both sections contain not only myriad company names and a host of briar trade names, but space forbids mentioning all; neither list, however, clearly indicates whether a named company uniquely made briar, clay, meerschaum, calabash, or any other type of pipe. To wit, just three randomly chosen, Breeno Pipes (Breen Brothers), Ambush (Unbay Pipe Manufacturing Co.), and the Patent Urn Pipe Company, are pipe puzzlers to me, maybe less so to someone intimately familiar with the British tobacco pipe industry.

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|Baron & Company||Billy Pipe Company|||Block, Salamon

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|Friedlander, L. (L.F.L.)||Grappin-Dallox|||Guinzel & Rosenberger

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|Pierce, W. H.  & Co. (The Cantilever)||Posener, Adolph & Co. (The A. D. Pose)|||Randolph, Andrew & Co.

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|+TABLE 4. A SHORT LIST OF LATE 19TH–EARLY 20TH CENTURY BRIAR PIPE ''TRADE NAMES'' OF ENGLAND AND IRELAND

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|S. N. & Co. Pocket Pipe and Spiral Bore||Tanner’s New Fibre Pipe|||Tindell’s Shilling Pipe

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|Wise Pipe (also known as the Upside Down Pipe)

What also comes to mind are J.W. Cole, ''The GBD St. Claude Story'' (1976) and ''Leaves from a Tobaccoman's Log'' (1970) about Charatan, based on interviews of Herman G. Lane (who adopted America) and written by American R. L. Schnitzer. The late John Loring had invested much time and energy to assemble nomenclature data about and publish four volumes on the Dunhill briar pipe. Several Americans are now writing feverishly in concert with Tom Palmer, the Peterson CEO, to ready ''The Peterson Pipe Chronicles'', to be released in 2015 in conjunction with the company’s 150th anniversary celebration. Additionally, there’s a lot written by Americans on English briar companies that’s posted on the worldwide Web. Why is that? What’s our fascination with, or attraction to, foreign pipe makers, and not to our very own? Our briar industry is not that much younger than our British (and French) counterparts, yet most recent evidence suggests that American pipe smokers seem less interested in documenting our own historic past. Strange, indeed, that about 100 years ago, at least one American, although not remarking on English-made briars, touted our workmanship: “French briar pipes are justly celebrated, but the American pipes are better made” (W. A. Brennan, ''Tobacco Leaves. Being A Book of Facts for Smokers'', 1915, 161). The published evidence, to date, suggests that today’s American briar pipe man does not hold the same opinion.

Le Musée de la Pipe, du Diamant et du Lapidaire, St. Claude, has a permanent exhibit of myriad, artistic briars from the late 19th century through the early 20th century. During its tenure, the aforementioned BPTA—not to be confused with the (UK) Pipe & Pipe Tobacco Trade Association—chartered “to encourage the development and promote and protect the interests of the briar pipe industry and generally to watch over and protect the interests of manufacturers and wholesalers of briar pipes and smokers’ articles” kept a register of trademarks, conducted public relations campaigns, introduced the “Pipeman of the Year” program, set stringent standards and guidelines for member manufacturers, wholesalers, suppliers and agents of finished pipes, bowls, and mouthpieces trade, but never maintained an archive. When the UK smoking ban in the work place took effect in the early 1970s, the BPTA ceased to exist.  

If a detailed and expansive history of our briar trade is a worthwhile endeavor, it is left to us, not the league of pipe makers, to undertake. It’s Pipedia’s wish: “It would be great to see an overview of the history of pipe making in each region.” And, I would add, not just those of the here and now, but also of yesterday. If such a database is maintained by a reader of this magazine, he ought to share it, make it public-domain information so that those interested can access it, fill in the blanks, make it more robust, more comprehensive by adding an abstract, an historically relevant snippet, a brief summary of a company’s productive life in a sort of Wikipedia (or Pipedia) way or, perhaps, as a cloud system or data warehouse, because there are, unquestionably, lots of blanks. Or, if anyone is interested in expanding or delving deeper into Jung’s research endeavor independently or in collaboration with him, that would be great for our hobby. How many American pipe aficionados are energized enough to investigate and publish the lengthy history of Demuth, or KBB, or Weber, or any other American brand? (I confess that at least two substantive articles on Demuth have been published: “Profiles of Pioneers of the Pipe and Tobacco Industries: William Demuth (1835–1911),” a detailed account of the family and the business from tobacco historian Jonathan Guss at http://www.apassionforpipes.com/vintages-project, and my own, “A Legendary Company Gone, While Its Logo Lives On: The Other Demuth,” in ''CIGAR Magazine'', Spring 2010, and there may yet be more to recount about this extraordinary pipe company.)