BPK (Proseč)

BPK is a factory operating in the town of Proseč in the Pardubice region of the Czech Republic, tracing its roots to a local pipemaking craft dating from the mid-nineteenth century. The start of production in the town is traditionally dated to 1842; although today's company was founded in 1993, it is considered a continuation of this lineage. About 150 kilometres east of Prague, this small settlement has for nearly two centuries been counted among Central Europe's most concentrated pipe-production centres.

From Town Craft to Factory

According to local tradition, the craft arrived in Proseč when two men from the neighbouring village of Paseky went to the Kladsko region behind the army and learned pipemaking there. The first pipes were carved from local woods such as alder, maple, and pear; briar root entered the picture much later. By the end of the nineteenth century, some two hundred people in the town and surrounding villages were making a living from this trade.

The turning point came after 1880, when merchant Bernard Kopperle set up a workshop employing around thirty workers. The workshop became a steam-powered factory in 1905. From 1910, following the example of French manufacturers, Kopperle began working briar himself, importing the block and also selling it to other manufacturers in Proseč. In this way the town became an extension of the period in which briar spread across Europe. After 1919, French milling equipment enabled a shift to short-pipe production, and by the end of the 1930s more than six hundred people in the town were producing around five hundred pipe models.

The State Enterprise Era

After the Second World War, production was consolidated at a single centre: with the nationalisation of private workshops in 1950, all pipe production in Czechoslovakia moved to Proseč. The newly established state enterprise took over not only the confiscated machine park but also Italian briar stocks and semi-finished goods. The factory was managed successively under Koh-i-noor and TOFA. In the 1970s production reached a level of one million pipes a year; roughly ninety percent of this output was exported, mostly to Western countries. This scale points to a production philosophy in which the distinction between mass-produced and workshop pipes became pronounced.

After 1993

Following the political changes of 1989, the factory passed into private hands, partly through restitution and partly through privatisation. B P K, spol. s r.o. was registered in the commercial register in 1993 at the Proseč address. Records indicate the brand name comes from the initials of the surnames of the three partners who privatised the company. The firm today reports exporting to more than forty countries; the 175th anniversary of pipe production in Proseč was celebrated in 2017.

Production follows the customary factory stages, from working the briar block through to polishing; heavily handworked finishing is one of the points the brand highlights. The town also has a pipe museum recounting the history of the craft.