Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy (KB&B)

Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy, known for short as KB&B, is a manufacturer founded in New York in 1851 that was, until the mid-twentieth century, counted among the largest companies in the American pipe industry. Today it is best remembered for the Kaywoodie and Yello-Bole names born under its roof, while pipes bearing the company's own stamp form a separate field of collecting.

From a Bowery Shop to a National Network

The German-born Kaufmann brothers opened a small shop in New York's Bowery neighborhood in 1851. In the early years the goods sold were meerschaum and clay pipes sent by a third brother from Vienna; production itself began in the back room of the shop. According to accounts, the firm took the name it is known by today in 1854, when a partner named Bondy joined the business.

The sales network spread beyond New York in the last quarter of the century; the agencies in Chicago, Atlanta, St. Louis, and San Francisco were mostly headed by family members and close acquaintances. The firm's two emblems — the inlaid clover leaf and the lettering set within the leaf — were registered in 1881. KB&B at one point also came to own the name C.P.F. (Colossus Pipe Factory); the exact year of the transfer is not known, though some pipes dated to the late 1910s carry both stamps together. According to accounts, the founding partners withdrew from the business in 1898; relatives carried the company on, and from the turn of the century the firm began producing its own briar pipes under the KB&B stamp.

Brands and Factories

Facing rising demand, production moved in 1915 to a larger facility in the Union Hill section of Union City, New Jersey; the sales offices remained in New York. Kaywoodie was launched in February 1919, and Dinwoodie in November of the same year; some accounts trace the beginning of the Kaywoodie name back to 1915, when the new briar line was introduced. Dinwoodie was discontinued before 1924, while Kaywoodie expanded to become the company's identity. Among the names KB&B used for its various price and quality tiers were Ambassador, Heatherby, Kingston, Melrose, Hollywood, Paragon, Cadillac, Times Square, and Kamello.

The Yello-Bole line, founded in 1932, existed to put to use briar deemed unworthy of Kaywoodie in a cheaper series rather than discarding it. Production was not carried out at the main New Jersey facilities but at the affiliated New England Briar Pipe Company in Penacook, New Hampshire, putting that plant's spare capacity to use as well. The stamps were kept separate too: on Kaywoodies the letters within the leaf were written with an "&" mark, while Yello-Boles carried no such mark. The in-leaf stamping practice was abandoned on the Kaywoodie side before 1936.

The Wartime Search for a Domestic Wood

When access to Mediterranean briar grew difficult during the Second World War, KB&B turned to a domestic source in 1941. The Pacific Briarwood Company, set up for this purpose, began harvesting manzanita roots on the slopes of California's Santa Cruz Mountains. This wood, marketed under the name "Mission Briar," belongs to the same plant family as briar but is a separate genus, and it did not match briar in smoking qualities. The project was abandoned once access to Mediterranean sources returned to normal after the war. For more on this subject, see the entry on pipes made from woods other than briar.

Change of Ownership

Records indicate that in 1952 Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy, together with all its subsidiaries, was sold to a buyer from outside the pipe industry. This period did not last long: in March 1955, S. M. Frank & Co. took over KB&B along with The Kaywoodie Company, Reiss-Premier Corp., New England Briar Pipe Co., and Yello-Bole. This brought to a close an independent company history spanning more than a century; the brands continued to be produced under the new ownership.