Belgian Pipe Brands Directory

Belgian Pipe Brands Directory brings together, in alphabetical order, pipe names founded in Belgium, run by Belgian makers, or whose production is rooted in Belgium. Pipe making in the country has followed two separate paths: on one side a workshop and factory tradition rooted in centers such as Brussels and Andenne, and on the other, handmade production carried on in recent generations by one-person workshops. The entries below summarize only what is on record; points where sources lack information are stated openly.

Brands

• Albertson — a pipe name issued by the Hillen firm, maker of the Hilson line. The brand carries the name of Albert Hillen, son of founder Jean Hillen. Production of Albertson pipes ended after Hillen was absorbed into Gubbels.

• Bocci — a brand carrying the name of Enrico Bocci, producing mostly machine-made pipes. In the higher grades, the blank coming off the lathe was shaped by hand, with the final finishing also done by hand. The maker is thought to have stopped work at some point in the 1980s; sources give no exact date.

• Bradberry — the brand of Bradberry Pipe Corp., active in New York in the 1960s. Some surviving examples also carry a "CLASSIC" stamp and appear with Italian-made stems; one leather-wrapped Bradberry pipe, however, is of Belgian manufacture. This scattered evidence suggests the brand had its pipes made by more than one manufacturer, or that the name was used by different firms.

• Claessen Pipes — the brand of Belgian pipe maker Dirk Claessen. The maker now carries on his work on Spain's Costa Blanca. Sources give no further detail about the workshop's scale of production.

• François Dal Pipes — a one-person workshop established in the town of Wépion near Namur. Production runs along two lines: "Handmade" pipes are shaped entirely by hand from flamed briar with vulcanite, acrylic, or Cumberland stems; the "Tradition" line consists of lathe-turned blanks, cured for at least twenty years, finished by hand. The route into the craft ran through repair work: François Dal first reconditioned old pipes, had the chance to watch master pipe maker Pierre Morel work at the bench during visits to Saint-Claude, and then founded his own workshop.

• Jean-Pierre Forton — a Belgian pipe maker from the Schaerbeek municipality of Brussels, active mainly in the 1990s. The precision of his craftsmanship and the character his pipes gained over the years won him standing among collectors, and some of his contemporaries smoked his pipes themselves. His designs are known for combining classic shapes with an elegant line reminiscent of the Danish school.

• Lèonard — the brand of Piperie Lèonard, a ceramic and clay pipe workshop in Andenne run by Pascal Lèonard. The town's pipe-making tradition goes back to the 1750s, and the Lèonard family name has long been associated with it. Pascal Lèonard is considered the last Belgian craftsman making terre cuite and terre à pipe pipes; coarse to medium-cut tobaccos are recommended for these pipes.

• Vinche — a Belgian meerschaum brand whose beginnings trace to the pipe shop Jean-Baptiste Vinche opened in central Brussels in 1864. His son Victor Vinche moved into pressed meerschaum pipe production in 1895 using a method learned from the Austrian firm Kaufthal, and the brand won international awards in this period. Marcel and René Vinche, who took over management in 1927, had a giant pipe made for the façade of their tobacconist on Rue Marché aux Herbes, inspired by René Magritte's surrealist painting bearing the words "Ceci n'est pas une pipe." The brothers also bought a second factory and moved into briar pipe production; by 1938 weekly output reached five thousand pipes.