Laughingmoon Pipes (Robert Vacher)

Laughingmoon Pipes is the brand of the briar pipe workshop American maker Robert Vacher runs on his own. Address records place the workshop first in the town of Litchfield in northeastern California, and in later years in Jacksonville, Florida. Since every stage of production runs through one hand, the brand is counted among artisan-scale makers.

Moon, Star, and Four Digits

Three separate marks appear together on the pipes: the brand symbol made of a crescent moon and a star, a handwriting-style "Vacher" signature, and a four-digit number. According to sources compiling stamp records, this number also serves as a date key; on this reading the first two digits give the pipe's sequence number for that year, and the last two the production year. On this reading, a pipe bearing 2013 on its body is the twentieth piece of 2013.

The brand's name also rests on the same pair. A laughing-moon-shaped charm Vacher found in a bead shop, along with a moon-and-star motif jewelry stamp sold at the same shop, supplied both the symbol and the stamping tool at once. The reason "laughing" was chosen over "smiling" is said to be the risk of confusion with the name used by the Missouri Meerschaum brand.

Founding the Workshop

The workshop's core is built on inherited equipment. In late 1998 Vacher bought from California carver Ted Lewis the lathes Lewis had largely designed and built himself, the remaining stock of briar, and around three hundred mouthpieces; by one account this briar was left over from a batch bought from carver Joe Mariner in the early eighties. Production became regular in early 1999, after a new briar batch arrived from Mark Tinsky, one of the founders of American Smoking Pipe Co.; the brand's start is generally tied to this date as well.

The Maker's Craft Background

By Vacher's own account he took up pipe smoking in 1985, at twenty-four. He was living in Sacramento at the time and had the chance to watch Joe Mariner's work up close at The Trade Winds, a tobacconist in the Birdcage Walk arcade. His first contact with carving came in 1986, through Ted Lewis, who by his account had been carving pipes since the 1950s and worked as an engineer on the Union Pacific railroad; he carved his first pipe at Lewis's workshop and made a few more over the following six months. Years spent driving put a long gap in between. Taking a job with the state government of California in 1996 and settling in Susanville brought both the time and the chance to reconnect with his old teacher; he found Lewis in Fort Bragg, on the state's northern coast. Some sources also note that in his early period the maker worked alongside American maker Brian Ruthenberg.

Design Language and Approach to Production

The combination most often seen in estate records is a rustic surface treatment, a dark red top coat over a black base stain, and an ebonite (vulcanite) saddle mouthpiece. Acrylic-mouthpiece examples are also on record. His shape repertoire is not limited to classical molds: bamboo-shanked pokers, reverse calabash, and hawkbill pieces appear alongside bodies with silver bands. Vacher, in a short statement of principle he published, argued that a handmade pipe should be open to anyone regardless of income level, and said he made his pipes for people who go to work every day. There is no clear record of whether the workshop is active today.