Go West: The American Handmade Pipe Scene

Go West is the title of a magazine article introducing artisan pipe making in the United States to European readers; it is not a brand or workshop name. Its being referred to in pipe literature as a standalone entry stems from the text being kept in archives under its own name. The article bears the byline of Erwin Van Hove. Per its own credit line it first appeared in the June issue of the French magazine Pipe Mag, then in the spring 2004 issue of Pipes and Tobaccos; this publication information has not been confirmed by any record outside the text's own credit.

The National-Style Thesis

The article's backbone rests on a single question: can one speak of an "American style" the way one speaks of styles for Denmark, Italy, or England? Van Hove's answer is no, and he locates the reason in geography and institutions alike. In Europe, production has concentrated in narrow areas like Saint-Claude, Pesaro, or Svendborg, and knowledge has passed down through generations within a workshop structure and a master-apprentice chain, as in the case of the Danish School. The US has neither this concentration nor a regular apprenticeship institution; carvers are scattered across the country and most are largely self-taught. Van Hove calls the result eclecticism. He does not argue that transmission is entirely absent: he notes that the gap is filled by telephone, email, and annual pipe shows. The largest of these is the Chicago International Pipe Show, run by the Chicagoland Pipe Collectors Club, founded in 1996.

Factory Versus Workshop

The article's focus is not the whole of US pipe production. The country has a long history of factory manufacture: the corncob pipe production started in 1869 in Washington, Missouri by Dutch-born carpenter Henry Tibbe — known today as Missouri Meerschaum — is the best-known example; brands such as Kaywoodie, Medico, Dr. Grabow, and Yello-Bole also supplied the domestic market with factory pipes for decades. Van Hove's subject, however, is pipes made by individual craftsmen — workshop production; this field only became distinct in the US by the late 1960s.

Names It Cites

The text places two names at the foundation of high-grade American pipe making. Of the two, Ed Burak was more designer than carver: he designed pipes for the Wally Frank brand in New York, took over New York's Connoisseur Pipe Shop in 1968, and had his drawings executed by others' hands. Before that, according to the article, he trained in the workshop of Austrian-born meerschaum master Paul Fischer. The second name is Mike Butera, an insurance agent by trade; he is said to have traveled to Europe in the late 1970s to visit Italian master Baldo Baldi, to have met Castello owner Carlo Scotti, and to have begun carving his own pipes upon his return.

From the generation active when the article was written, it cites J.T. Cooke, known for his sandblasted surfaces; Mark Tinsky, who founded American Smoking Pipe Company with Curt Rollar in 1978 and continued alone after the partnership ended in 1990; Lee von Erck, said to have developed an oil-curing method at his Michigan workshop; Todd Johnson, who uses the STOA Briars stamp and names his surfaces after Greek antiquity; Romanian-born Rolando Negoita, said to have studied fine arts; and Larry Roush. Trevor Talbert also belongs to this generation: according to his own official account, he began carving in the mid-1990s, founded his own brand in 1998 shortly after winning Pipes and Tobaccos magazine's first national carving competition, and moved with his wife to the west coast of France in 2002, working there for seven years. Talbert is known for his morta (bog oak) pipes as well as his Ligne Bretagne and Talbert Briar lines.

A Note on Verification

The article's factual weight is not evenly distributed. Missouri Meerschaum's founding in 1869, Burak taking over the Connoisseur Pipe Shop in 1968, the partnership Tinsky founded in 1978, and the timeline Talbert gives for himself all match independent records. By contrast, Butera's trip to Europe, his apprenticeship with Fischer, von Erck's curing method, and Negoita's education currently rest on this text alone; PipoWiki presents all of these with an attribution note.