Monterey

Monterey is a pipe series released during the Second World War by American manufacturer Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy (KB&B), with bowls carved not from Mediterranean briar but from manzanita root grown in California. The name is used together with "Mission Briar," the commercial term for the native wood used in the series, and represents one of the best-known briar-substitute experiments of the period.

A Search Forced by the War

The war years squeezed the American pipe industry from two directions: briar shipments from the Mediterranean were cut off, and metals such as aluminum, used for fittings, were tied up in military priority. Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy, which ran the Kaywoodie brand, launched a search for a domestically grown hard root in order to keep production going. A subsidiary called Pacific Briarwood Company, established in 1941 for this purpose, was tasked with cutting and curing manzanita root on the slopes of the Santa Cruz mountains in California.

Manzanita is a shrub belonging to the same heather family (Ericaceae) as briar, and its roots form tight-grained burls suited to pipe making. Its burning behavior and flavor transfer, however, are considered not to produce the same result as Mediterranean briar. In the same years, Reiss-Premier Pipe Co., also part of the Kaywoodie organization, likewise made pipes from this wood; "Mission Briar" is thus not a single firm's solution but a shared one from the wartime American industry. For a broader survey of similar searches, see the article alternative woods used in pipe making.

Marks and Series

The series' distinguishing trace is its shank mark: most of the pipes carry the words Monterey and Mission Briar together. White inlaid marks were used on the stems, and the pattern of lines and dots in these marks varies from example to example. Contrary to Kaywoodie's established habit, most Monterey bowls carry no shape number; this omission places the series outside dating methods based on Kaywoodie shape numbers.

A promotional brochure dated 1946, circulating in collector accounts, shows that the series was divided into four quality tiers. Unconfirmed by any independent document, this division can be summarized as follows: at the top of the tiers is Forty-Niner, with a natural polish and a wide aluminum band, immediately followed by Carburetor Virgin Grain, which carries no band. The lower two tiers can be told apart by their color: Specimen Grain is a medium brown, while Select Grain is a dark plum.

End of the Series

Once the war ended and briar supply from the Mediterranean returned to normal, the manzanita experiment was not continued; by 1947 Pacific Briarwood Company had ceased operations, and the series was pulled from the catalogs. Today, Monterey-marked pipes are collected less as a brand than as documents of a specific period. For the general framework and date ranges of KB&B marks, the Kaywoodie collector's guide is a useful reference.