Garfinkel: Washington's Pipe and Tobacco Shop

Garfinkel, in full A. Garfinkel Inc., was a tobacconist's shop in Washington that sold pipes, pipe tobacco, and cigars for roughly thirty years. It was not a workshop carving pipes on its own bench; it was an importer-retailer that selected what others produced and brought it to market under its own name. The reason the community still remembers the name lies in this very selectivity: blends sold under the shop's label continue to be mentioned in collectors' records long after the business closed.

The Blends Behind the Label

Tobaccos carrying the Garfinkel name were not made at a facility belonging to the shop but in England; sources point to the firms Robert McConnell and Sobranie. The products were not simply a stock blend relabeled — they were prepared to recipes the shop set. The numbered "Orient Express" series and "Marlowe" are the most often mentioned of these; both are mixtures built predominantly on Oriental tobacco. Custom blending for individual customers is also reported to have been done alongside these, with recipes Arnold Garfinkel brought from Europe occasionally used for the purpose.

The same logic applied on the pipe side. Bodies stamped "A. Garfinkel, Wash D.C." were made outside and sold under the shop's name. In surviving examples the stamp sometimes states the source of the briar ("Algerian Briar"), sometimes says only "Imported Briar"; many pieces carry wording pointing to French manufacture. Because the stamps do not name a specific factory, the true maker of these pipes cannot be established with certainty in most examples.

The Founder and Two Shops

Arnold Garfinkel (1903-1988) was born in Germany, and his family's connection to the tobacco trade goes back two generations before him; his father is reported to have sold tobacco in Berlin. According to records, he left Nazi Germany in 1938, settled in Washington, and opened his first shop in 1940; this first venture closed during the years of the Second World War.

The business known today was born nearly twenty years later, in the summer of 1960. Its first address was 720 14th Street; the shop announced its move to Eye Street in the spring of 1980. Being this close to Lafayette Square and the White House at its new location fed the business's recognition around the capital. According to the story, a journalist in 1972 spotted a box of Garfinkel tobacco alongside the pipes on President Richard Nixon's desk during an interview and wrote about it; sources do not agree on which magazine the anecdote appeared in. For a broader account of the relationship between the presidency and the pipe, see the entry on pipes given as gifts to American presidents.

The Final Years

The founder's son Larry appears at the head of the business in 1980 and gradually takes over full responsibility; even so, Arnold Garfinkel kept his connection to the shop to the end of his life. Demand narrowed by growing pressure on smoking and shifting palates eventually wore the business down as well: A. Garfinkel is reported to have closed in the summer of 1992. Its name lives on today through stamped pipes circulating on the secondary market and old tobacco tins.