US Pipe Brands Directory (1/3)

US Pipe Brands Directory is an attempt to gather the scattered record of American pipe production in one place; this first installment of the three-part directory covers ninety-one entries running from Admiral to Gerrard. Pipe making in America followed two tracks: on one side, factories and house brands concentrated around Brooklyn and New York turning out hundreds of thousands of pipes a year, and on the other, mostly one-person workshops that multiplied rapidly after the 1960s. The entries below are short and factual; brands for which only a name is on record are kept in the list with the gap clearly noted.

Brands

• Admiral — recorded as one of the Anglo-American joint brands; its production is tied to the names E. Deguingand & Son and L&H Stern. No documentation exists on the brand beyond these two names.

• Aero Kool — dated to around 1946, this pipe was designed as a simplified take on the Kirsten and Bryson-type metal-bodied pipe. The bowl is briar, the body aluminum; the spiral pattern on the shank is the same as on the Kool Twist pipe.

• Albert-John — Albert-John Briars, Ltd. was founded in 1976 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by Evan C. Schwemer. The firm appears to have stopped work in or shortly after 1987, and the remaining Albert-John line appears to consist of pipes in the Danish freehand style fashionable at the time. Because the company carried the name Uhle Tobacco Corporation until August 22, 1977, the line is thought to have been a private line made for Uhle's.

• Alexander — the brand of David D. Alexander. Not to be confused with Alexander Pipes, which carries the same name and forms a separate record.

• Allen, George — a now-deceased pipe maker from Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Whether pipes stamped ALLEN and HANDMADE belong to him or to John Allen has not been settled.

• Alpine Briars — the brand of Stephen Johnson, working in the Los Angeles area of California. No documentation exists beyond the maker's name and the region he worked in.

• Ambassador — a brand produced by Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy in the early twentieth century. Since the Italian brand Ambassador by Gasparini carries the same name, the two can be confused; the American Ambassador's record sits under KB&B.

• Americana — referred to as an Anglo-American brand and considered a GBD second line. Records associate it with the names L&H Stern, Pioneer, and Appleby.

• Anderson, P. A. — the brand of Phil A. Anderson. The last pipes appearing on his own site are dated 2006, leading to the assumption that he stopped pipe making.

• Andre Mermet — a French master who emigrated to America. The son of a craftsman, he came to New York at fifteen and set up a pipe manufactory here employing six people. He made pipes for numerous American brands without his name being mentioned, chief among them Barclay Rex, and there is a record that he made all of the Wilke brand's pipes. He also made pipes for the army, later settled in California, and his son carried on the business.

• Andrew Staples Pipes — Andrew Staples's workshop in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. He works with quality briar, vulcanite, and selected decorative materials, and makes his pipes to order.

• Ansell's — the brand of a pipe and tobacco shop on 14th Street in Washington D.C. It is one of three Washington brands whose city name appears in the stamp; the others are Bertram and A. Garfinkel.

• Antony André Pipes — a workshop registered under the name Antony André in White House, Tennessee. Records give no more than the maker's name and the workshop's location.

• Arista — a pipe line produced by VanRoy, on the market by 1944 at the latest. It continued after the firm was bought by Henry Leonard & Thomas Inc. in 1953 and was made with the Ajustomatic fitting that became widespread on Dr. Grabow pipes.

• ASB Pipes — Aaron Berwick's handmade briar pipes in Taylorsville, North Carolina. The pipes carry a burned-in "ASB" mark and are individually numbered; the maker has stated he does not do this work full-time and that production stays limited.

• Asselta — Asselta Briar Pipe Co. was located in the old train station building in Bellmore, on New York's Long Island. The best-documented item on the firm is a period matchbook cover.

• Atilano Pipes — handmade pipes produced in his free time by Emmanuel "Manny" Atilano. The maker says he works starting from raw material and that his priority is a good smoke.

• Balkovec Pipes — a workshop registered under the name Mark Balkovec in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Nothing beyond the maker's name and city has been documented.

• Barnaby Briar — the brand of Barnaby Briars, a pipe dealer on Powell Street in Brooklyn. Known for briar-stemmed pipes; the same dealer also had a brand called Yorkshire Courtesy.

• Beck — Aaron Beck is one of the first American makers to turn to freehand pipes in the modern sense. Starting in the mid-1950s he worked in the Queens borough of New York, later retired to Florida, and is said to have died in 1984. What set his work apart was layering different woods and other materials in the stem and shank; he is counted among the first to try acrylic inlay on stems. He is suggested as a possible designer of the DC (Double Comfort) stem developed for Charatan.

• Benjamin Pipe Co. — a pipe manufacturer based in Brooklyn. It appears to have been active in the 1930s, with pipes made in New York distributed through Scholler Brothers of Philadelphia.

• Big Casino Pipes — the handmade pipes of Harry Crisman, who lives in Sarver, Pennsylvania, about forty kilometers north of Pittsburgh. Crisman has worked at a steel mill since 1995 and as a blacksmith since 1999; he makes his pipes on weekends and in his spare time.

• Birnbaum — William Birnbaum was a maker of meerschaum and briar pipes in the late 19th century. A meerschaum pipe's box label shows it was sold at his shop on Cortlandt Street in New York. The business, seen at that address in 1881, had moved to Nassau Street by 1890; the exact date of the move is unknown.

• Blue Ridge — Blue Ridge Pipes, based in Asheville, North Carolina. No record exists beyond the brand name and the city.

• Bosi Pipes — the workshop of Italian-born Kirk Bosi in Manhattan, Illinois. He produces a small number of pipes a year, drawing a range from freehand to classics out of blocks shaped according to the grain. His work is noted for conically opening the smoke channel and leaving the bowl walls thick.

• Bowl Dry — a system pipe produced by the Hollman Pipe Company of Toledo, Ohio. Nothing survives beyond a period display device demonstrating how the pipe worked.

• BP Jum — a brand of uncertain origin. Because its design resembles Custom-Bilt pipes, it has been suggested it may be the work of Tracy Mincer, though no direct link has been established. Another possibility is that the name comes from an abbreviation of the Jumbo line of Biltmore Pipes; this too remains at the level of conjecture for now.

• Braddock — the workshop Bill Braddock runs in Oklahoma City under the name "Art That Smokes." He uses Italian and Algerian plateau briar, reworking classic shapes in his own interpretation; he shapes stems by hand and lines bowls before smoking with a pre-smoke coating mixture.

• Brancher — a venture that began in Georgia on February 20, 2012. The first series was made from locally gathered hickory wood; the maker particularly uses the section of trunk where branches emerge, as this cut is more durable. The brand's mark is a large letter B with a leaf added to its base.

• Breezewood — a brand that appeared by 1942 at the latest. During World War II, when Mediterranean and European briar became hard to reach, American manufacturers turned to native alternatives; the most common of these was mountain laurel, a distant relative of briar. Breezewood advertisements built a narrative tying this wood to the untouched forests of the Great Smoky Mountains. The debate over the material's toxicity has no basis beyond the fact that animals eat it.

• Briar Bird Pipes — the brand of Jason Cochey in Bellevue, Ohio. Known for colorful stems and stout shapes. He first learned pipe making from internet forums, then worked alongside Premal Chheda.

• Briarbilt — appears to have been the house brand of the L. Bamberger & Co. store. This large store, founded in 1893, was bought by Macy's in 1929, and the name was retained until around 1986.

• Briarlee — a sub-brand of Lee, likely a second line. It appears in at least one Pipes by Lee catalog.

• Brick — Max Brick ran a pipe and tobacco shop in Trenton, New Jersey; in a workshop attached to the shop he did repairs and made freehands drawing mostly on the Danish style. He was the third generation of a family of Lithuanian immigrant descent.

• Brissett — the hand-carved pipes of Mike Brissett. He works with air-dried briar, opens the smoke channel to 4 mm and polishes it with a conical taper inside; he coats bowls with a thin layer of activated carbon using a natural binder, arguing this protects the wood during the break-in period and lays the foundation for an even cake.

• Bryson — a screw-fitted pipe with a wooden bowl and aluminum body. Like Kirsten, it was designed to trap moisture and tar and cool the smoke to prevent tongue bite. It was distributed in 1947 by Bennett Brothers, Inc., based in Chicago and New York.

• Busa — the brand of North American maker A. Dana Busa. The author of Pipe and Tobacco Register, Busa won first place in the International Pipe Carving Competition and placed in the top ten of the competition Pipes and Tobaccos magazine ran in partnership with Butz-Choquin.

• C.B. Perkins — a chain that opened its first shop in Boston in the early 1900s, considered New England's leading tobacconist for more than seventy-five years. In 1986 management handed the Pennsylvania and New Jersey branches to DES Tobacco Corporation, a subsidiary of S. Frieder and Sons. S. Frieder, a cigar maker since 1920, had sold its manufacturing arm to United States Tobacco in 1978 to focus on retail.

• Carroll — Charles Carroll made pipes at his home in Traverse City, Michigan. Though not widely known beyond his own state and the Midwest, he is considered a skilled maker. He stamped his pipes "Charles Carroll"; his real name was Chuck Holiday.

• Cazzetta — no recorded information exists; only the brand name is documented.

• Charles Tulsa — a now-deceased maker who had a workshop in Florida. He is the creator of the Old Reliable brand and also worked for The Briar Workshop.

• CHP-X — one of the earliest American freehand pipe ventures. Founded in the early 1970s by Jay Rostov, former owner of Jay's Smoke Shop, together with Chuck Holiday. Shortly after founding, Rostov hired his relative Michael Kabik, and Holiday left the partnership; for what followed, see the Kabik entry.

• Chris Best — a maker who has made pipes since the 1970s. His mark is a circular C surrounding the letter B.

• Cipolla — the brand of Robert Cipolla. His pipes are said to draw on the Lee von Erck line; they are known for containing no filler and coming with a plug alongside them.

• Clark — Chris Clark, a pipe maker from Toledo, Ohio. Nothing is known about him beyond his name and the city he worked in.

• Clark Briar Originals — the pipes of Bob Clark in Warren, Rhode Island. Clark spent twenty-five years as an offshore fisherman; drawing on influence from past and present English masters, he reworks classic shapes with an eye to smoking performance and cures his pipes with oil in the English tradition. He also runs a fully equipped repair workshop.

• Clewell — a brand registered under the name R. A. Clewell. The name is the only data kept in the directory; neither location, date, nor production information is available.

• Collins — Bill Collins, working in St. Louis, Missouri. Two accounts stand side by side in the source: one holds that the maker produced his pipes under the name Jost, the other that Jost is a pipe and tobacco shop in St. Louis where Collins worked as a repairman and maker.

• Comeaux — the brand of Tennessee maker Larry E. Comeaux II. Born October 24, 1943, died November 16, 2015. Known as "The Pipe Doctor," Comeaux got into the trade through the encouragement of two master friends from Knoxville, M. O. Vickers and Robert Blackwell; he produced numerous freehand, exotic, and sculptural pipes and was also respected as a repairman. He won the freehand competition at the 1986 PCI members' meeting and was honored by the Saint-Claude guild of pipe masters. He worked with Greek briar and vulcanite and lucite stems.

• Connoisseur — the shop Ed Burak opened in New York in 1968, run first on 46th Street then on 6th Avenue. It closed in February 2009 after forty years. Burak was a designer rather than a carver; his pipes were made by Tony Pesante of New Jersey and Joe Cortegiano of New York. The shop is also remembered for its own blends. For more, see the Ed Burak entry.

• Continental Briar Pipe Co. — a briar pipe manufacturer based at the intersection of York and Adams streets in Brooklyn. The address comes from the firm's letterhead dated July 28, 1941.

• Conway Jr. — pipe maker C. E. Conway Jr. of Orlando, Florida. Only this name and address remain.

• Cook, Tom — a carver from Amarillo, Texas, often confused with J. T. Cooke. His freehands were at times as flamboyant as to recall Preben Holm's carving style. He stamped his pipes "T. Cook"; he is now retired.

• Cooke, Charles Patrick — an England-born, well-known pipe maker in southern California; not to be confused with his namesake J. T. Cooke. He did not live long enough for his craftsmanship to gain international recognition. He specialized in combining sitter-shaped bowls with other shapes; he signed his pipes "Cooke" with an engraving tool.

• Cortegiano — Joseph "Joe" Cortegiano was one of New York's most frequently cited pipe masters, known for the precision and exactness of his work. He was known in particular for his very large-scale freehands, said to be in high demand. His pipes were carried by well-known shops such as E. Wilke on Madison Avenue; he also worked for Barclay Rex. His grandson Scott Parfumi made pipes under Jack H. Weinberger before returning to New York to work at the family shop.

• Courtley — a sub-brand or second line of Custom-Bilt, positioned at the cheap end. A 1957 wholesale catalog presents Courtley as the economy version of Custombilt: walnut-toned polish, vulcanite stem, and sold by the dozen in a display box. That same year, an even cheaper Custom-Bilt sub-brand called His Nibs was also sold.

• Creator's Design Pipes & Blades — the workshop Dan and Amy Sanford run together in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The brand name rests on the couple's belief that creativity is a gift.

• Crisman, Harry — founder of Big Casino Pipes. He lives in Sarver, north of Pittsburgh; he began pipe making in 2012. Because he works days at a steel mill and evenings as a blacksmith, he makes his pipes in his spare time; he says he comes from a family of craftsmen.

• Cristiano — Thomas Cristiano entered the pipe trade at the S. M. Frank factory on Long Island just weeks after emigrating from Italy to America at sixteen in 1968. After ten years at this factory, which also made Kaywoodie pipes, he left and founded his own company, Cristom Imports and Exports, in Tampa, Florida. Alongside the Cristiano Signature Series and Calabresi lines, Cristiano is thought to have made Kaywoodie pipes in Tampa from the mid-1980s to around 1992. He was one of the country's most respected humidor makers; he died in Italy on November 7, 2005.

• Crosby — John Crosby began making pipes after meeting carvers at the Chicago Pipe Show; his work, which started with ready-made kits, developed step by step. Today he works with Italian briar and stems he cuts by hand from German vulcanite rod. He trained in painting, earning a bachelor's degree at Jackson State University and a master's at Purdue.

• Dagner Pipes — born when a father and son who first evaluated pipes and tobacco on a video channel decided to make their own pipes. Their plain pipes, of their own design, are made to order in Italy by a manufacturer and produced by hand from rested briar.

• DANA 31 — a promotional pipe accompanying a two-pack purchase of Edgeworth tobacco in 1949; advertisements state the offer ended on October 31, 1949. Its design is close to Kirsten: an aluminum body, a screw-fitted briar bowl, a plastic stem with an aluminum tube extending into the body, and a screw-on cap. Fiber gaskets are used at both the bowl and the cap.

• Danco — sources tie the brand to both Denmark and America without giving a specific maker's name. Period ads show the firm was located on Hudson Street in New York. Some pipes carry the stamp "Imported Briar," which points to American manufacture; examples stamped "Italy" suggest the American distributor had part of the run made in Italy. Danish-made examples would be expected to carry a "Denmark" stamp.

• Darby — the brand of the Darby Pipe Shop in Illinois. The shop was founded in 1945 by maker Royal Aten and later passed to other owners.

• David Jones — David Jones began making pipes in 1986, and by 1988 the number of pipes he had sold had passed two thousand. Having bought a large briar stock early on, he knows the origin of his wood; he lets the burls rest for years in a controlled environment before curing them a further five to seven years at the workshop. He tapers the holes in the shank and stem at the bit and mouthpiece. His stem mark is a mother-of-pearl dot; pipes are stamped with his signature, "handmade," "USA," and a grade.

• Delta Pipes — the brand of Michael Fauscette. Fauscette came to pipe making after years as a collector and smoker; he describes his interest, which began with Italian and English pipes, gradually shifting to the handmade work of Danish and American makers. A friendship with a freehand maker gave him a chance to closely observe workshop practice.

• Diebel — pipes thought to have been made under the name Diebel by George Becker, the house carver at Diebel's Sportsmans Gallery (originally Fred Diebel, Pipemaker, Tobacconist) in Kansas City, Missouri. Becker also made pipes under his own stamp for a period.

• Doerr — Diane Doerr, who worked under Jack H. Weinberger in the 1970s. For more, see the JHW Pipes entry.

• Donald Kayne — cited in one sales record as a well-known pipe master active in the 1970s. According to scattered online information he was based in the Long Island area of New York in those years; his name appears together with the Germaine record.

• Dr. Kernel — Dr. Joseph E. Kernel was an ophthalmologist in Indianapolis, Indiana; his office was in the city's Traction Terminal building in 1951. Bernard Batty, also of Indianapolis, received patent number 2,614,568 in May 1950. Tracy Mincer, also of the same city, is known besides his other pipes for The Doodler. What relationship connects these three names has not been clarified.

• Dr. Shotton's — a system pipe distributed by Foster Products, Inc. of Cleveland, Ohio; a second address in New York is also on record. Removing the plug at the bottom of the bowl lets a pipe cleaner pass straight through, meant to remove the need to disassemble the stem. The open slit on the top of the tube running under the bowl is meant to ensure full airflow. Promotional material states that the briar is left unvarnished so that it can breathe, letting the wood color naturally with tar.

• Drysmoke — Drysmoke Silvertone pipes, produced by National Briar Pipe Co., were made, in the marketing language of the day, from DuPont nylon "light as a feather." Because the pipes carry only a "nylon" stamp, they are most often referred to by that name.

• Duke of Dundee — a model marketed under the slogan "the pipe science built." It had two notable features: an air-adjustment hole set into the outer lower edge of the bowl, and a shank with a replaceable filter. The firm called these two parts the "unclogging filter" and the "coordinated air regulator"; the filter arrangement is close to that of Medico and similar brands. The pipe was made by Continental Briar Pipe Co. in Brooklyn, most likely in the 1940s.

• DuPont Explosives promotional pipes — pipes given out as souvenirs by du Pont's explosives division between 1912 and 1933. The maker is unknown. The shape is thought to recall an 18th- or early-19th-century powder keg; poker and bent examples exist, some with a band. One face carries the du Pont logo with the word "explosives," the other the stamp "Genuine French Briar"; stems are vulcanite or a similar material.

• Eastman Pipe — a pipe signed Eastman Scientific. How long it was produced and its details are unknown; the only surviving document is a period promotional brochure.

• Emperor — the brand of Empire Briar Pipe Company Inc. of New York. Advertisements from 1945 call it "the pipe without equal," claiming every example is a piece of craftsmanship in the bespoke tradition. The firm was a subsidiary of Continental Briar Pipe Co. Inc., located on York Street in Brooklyn. It had three grades: Standard, De Luxe, and Supreme.

• Ensslen — pipe maker Bob Ensslen of Cresco, Pennsylvania. Nothing beyond his name and town has been documented.

• F.L.N. — F. L. Norwood's bespoke briar pipes in Clifton, Tennessee. The maker says his main occupation is pipe repair, and pipe making is his pursuit. He uses the FLN stamp only for three grades: AX (flawless grain, no fills or flaws), A (good grain, no fills or flaws), and B (good grain, a few small fills). His son Kenneth Norwood marks his pipes with the KN stamp.

• Fairchild, Don — recorded as a pipe maker from Bellaire, Texas. This record is quite likely to have been confused with pipe maker Ron Fairchild.

• Ferdinand Feuerbach — began work at William Demuth Company in 1897 and was responsible for launching brands such as Royal DeMuth and Hesson Guard. He moved to S. M. Frank in 1919 and was made vice president of the company in 1943.

• Fillenwarth — Tony Fillenwarth of Mazon, Illinois, began pipe making as a hobby and became known for original, exotic-shaped freehands. Records give his annual output as around a hundred, while the maker's own account puts the figure under seventy-five; some of his pipes are made of olive wood. He works Greek and Algerian briar with acrylic, vulcanite, and Cumberland stems. His stamp reads "Fillenwarth / USA." He says he made his first pipe from a purchased kit, and once that pipe was finished he knew he would carry on the work for life.

• Filto — dated to around 1965, a design recalling the Kirsten and Bryson pipes: an aluminum body and a screw-fitted briar bowl. It was produced in many colors and color combinations. It was made in Burgaw, North Carolina.

• FloggleWerks — the pipes of James Millar. Made from native wood species with no glue used at all.

• Forecaster — a pipe produced by National Briar Pipe Co. of Jersey City, New Jersey. It was marketed with an "aluminum coil" placed in the airway, claimed to clean and cool the smoke.

• Frey — Michael J. Frey made pipes in Lockport, New York from at least the early 1980s. He is a student of Michael Butera and, like his teacher, kept his production low and his standard of quality high. His work is considered superior in craftsmanship, proportion, and interior dimensions; his mark is in ivory and silver, and his shapes follow a classic line. Once PCI shows turned into an environment where makers sold directly, he tried full-time carving but is said to have found it impossible to make a living in such a narrow field and given up the work.

• Galehouse — pipe maker Joseph Galehouse, working in Wooster, Ohio. Records consist only of the maker's name and city.

• Gardner — Russ Gardner began the trade in his grandfather's lumber workshop. A pipe smoker himself, the maker works alone; he makes mostly freehands and produces pipes to customers' sketches or suggestions.

• Genna — Frank Genna makes mostly freeform, sculptural pipes. The son of a woodworker father, he had worked with wood since childhood, though he did not make his first pipes until after 1993. He accepts bespoke work based on customer designs.

• George Becker — the staff pipe carver at Diebel's Sportsmans Gallery in Kansas City; he also appears in the directory under the Diebel heading. It is known that he also made pipes under his own stamp.

• Georgopulo — G. A. Georgopulo & Company was founded by George Georgopulo and his brothers Basil and Theodore. In the early twentieth century it produced quality cigarettes from Turkish and Egyptian tobaccos and was the sole American importer of these tobaccos. George B. Georgopulo joined the business in the 1940s, followed later by Panos Georgopulo. The firm issued the Andron, Ramses II, and Duo-Blend brands; it was based on Stone Street in New York for many years and is credited as the inventor of the unbranded cigarette. It is known to have also sold pipes, some of which were made and stamped for them by Saville. The company was dissolved in 1995.

• Gerrard — bespoke pipes made by E. E. Lushbaugh of Hagerstown, Maryland. Lushbaugh referred to his product as the "Gerrard Three-way pipe."