Blatter & Blatter

Blatter & Blatter is a Canadian pipe workshop founded in Montreal in 1907 and carried on by the same family for five generations. It was known in its early years as "Blatter Bros."; today it is considered the last workshop in the city to finish briar pipes entirely by hand from start to finish. The workshop's line rests not on ornament but on plain shapes proportioned for use.

From Europe to Montreal

Which founding figure the family should be credited to varies from source to source: the common account says the family was founded by French-born Frédéric-Georges Blatter, while some accounts place the brothers Ernest and Henri-Georges directly at the head of the business. What is consistent is that the craft was learned in France and carried outside Europe. Records indicate the family ran a pipe workshop in London in the late 1890s; when the workshop burned down, they moved to South Africa, producing and selling in both Cape Town and Durban. In 1907 it was Montreal's turn; a workshop and an attached shop were opened in the city.

Working alongside Frédéric-Georges were his son Ernest and Ernest's half-brother Henri. The business expanded rapidly: by the 1930s it is reported the workshop employed around fifty people and supplied pipes to five separate points of sale. The Great Depression and the years of the Second World War pulled this scale back; in the early 1950s production and retail were merged under one roof. Having remained on the same street for sixty-three years, the business moved in 1970 to another street in the city, its current location.

Generations and Workshop

Ernest's son Henri-Georges joined the business in the 1930s and held the management until his death in 1967. His son Pierre, who had been working alongside his father since 1964, took over management at that point. Pierre's brother Robert joined the firm in 1968 and took charge of pipemaking; the handmade "Select" pipes have been associated with his name since that date. In 1997, Pierre's son Patrick began training alongside his uncle, and over time moved to the bench himself.

The bond with Saint-Claude, France's pipe city, continued at both the raw-material and reputation level: a significant portion of the briar blocks come from that town's suppliers. Pierre and Robert Blatter were admitted to Saint-Claude's guild of master pipemakers (Confrérie des Maîtres-Pipiers) in 1982; the same honour is reported to have later been granted to Patrick as well. According to records, the firm was recognised among businesses noted for service quality in Quebec in 1993.

Approach to Shape and Marks

Production is limited to a few hundred pieces a year; bowls are shaped by hand in the workshop behind the shop, and repairs and maintenance are carried out at the same benches. Although demand has exceeded production capacity, the workshop has not expanded, continuing instead to turn out a limited number of pieces. In this respect it is a concrete example of the distinction between artisan production and factory production. The shapes lean heavily on classics such as the billiard and Canadian; Dublins, Rhodesians, and freehand pieces also appear. All three surface treatments are used: smooth polish, sandblast, and hand rustication.

The shank mark is generally "Blatter" with "Montreal" beneath it; "Blatter Bros." and Robert Blatter's signed "Select" mark are also known types. The brand's most distinctive marker, however, is the small red dot placed on the body. Accounts of the dot's meaning disagree: one version holds that a single dot indicates the standard grade and a double dot the Select tier, while another version ties a single dot to machine-assisted shaping of the body. On pipes prepared for the founding's centenary in 2007, the shank was stamped with "1907 – 2007" alongside Robert Blatter's signature mark.