Aristocob

Aristocob is an American-made system pipe with a shank cast from metal and a bowl formed from a removable, disposable piece of corncob. The idea is simple: the lightness and neutral taste of the cob are preserved while the quickly worn cob bowl is set inside a durable outer shell. The pipe can thus be used for years, with only the bowl inside replaced at intervals.

A Short History of the Company

Joseph W. Zarikta, who designed the pipe, founded a small business named the Al Cobb Corporation in the town of Grand Haven, Michigan, reportedly in 1961. The company was handed over about a year later to a group of Grand Rapids businessmen and its name changed to Aristocob Incorporated; production moved within the same state to Caledonia. According to accounts, the brand was later bought by Missouri Meerschaum, the company regarded as the center of corncob pipe making; the date of this transfer is unknown.

The documentation of the design, however, is clear. Zarikta's application, titled "Smoking pipe," was filed on June 15, 1964, and registered on December 20, 1966, as US 3,292,639, with the Al Cobb Corporation listed as rights holder. The patent text details the internal cavity that accounts for the cob swelling as it absorbs tar and moisture, and the heat-resistant ceramic lining that protects the bowl base from burning through.

Construction and Use

The outer shell is a metal shell divided lengthwise by vertical fins; these fins both increase the cooling surface and give the pipe an appearance reflecting the geometric design sensibility of the period. The shell's top ring is threaded, is removed by turning, and lets the corncob bowl inside be swapped in a single motion. The bowl base is supported, across different production batches, either by a ceramic floor or by a thin sheet-metal piece with a hole in the center. Because an absorbent element could be placed in the smoke path, the pipe is counted within the family of filtered system pipes. Collectors report that the stem was made in two forms, with and without a gasket ring; this distinction does not rest on an independent record.

When first released, the product was offered in a hard plastic box together with two spare bowls and instructions for use. This packaging is today one of the markers used to identify surviving examples.

The End and Its Place Today

Corncob bowls were produced for a time at the factory in the town of Washington, Missouri; according to sources this manufacturing began in the early 1970s and stopped in 1983 when the machine that turned the cobs reached the end of its service life. Once the flow of replacement bowls stopped, the pipe effectively fell out of use as well.

Aristocob is today considered the most fully realized example of attempts to combine the corncob pipe tradition with the concept of a metal system pipe. Enthusiasts interested in repair occasionally restore old shells to working order; but since original bowls are no longer produced, these pipes mostly remain display pieces.