Liverpool

Liverpool is a straight pipe shape formed by joining a long, round-sectioned shank with a short, tapered mouthpiece (stem). The bowl proportions preserve Billiard dimensions; what actually defines the shape is the unusually long distance the shank runs from bowl to lip. Because of this, Liverpool is classified as part of the four-member group known as the Canadian family.

Its Place in the Family

The members of the Canadian family are distinguished by two variables: the shank's cross-section and the mouthpiece type. Liverpool falls into the box where a round shank meets a tapered mouthpiece in this grid. Canadian also uses a tapered mouthpiece, but its shank is oval-sectioned; the only thing separating the two shapes, then, is the shank's cross-section, and from a distance their silhouettes look almost identical. Lovat shares the same round shank as Liverpool but is finished with a saddle-type mouthpiece. These definitions are largely credited to Bill Burney's widely used shape charts, which group all four shapes together under the heading "long shanks." For a detailed comparison, see the long shanks entry.

On proportion, the criterion often cited in the community is that on a Liverpool the shank length exceeds twice the bowl height. The same criterion is generally kept more modest for Lovat; a Lovat's shank most often stays below that limit. Since the boundaries shift from one manufacturer to another, these definitions should be understood as an established convention rather than a strict standard.

Construction and Smoke

The long shank is expected to be cut in one piece with the bowl, from the same briar block. Because this requires a block that's both large and flawless, Liverpool is among the shapes rarely seen in mass production. The long shank is also functional: because more absorbent wood sits between the burning tobacco and the lip, the smoke is thought to cool and shed moisture along the way. The family's members share this smoking character; where they differ is in shape. For the naming of parts like shank, bowl, and mouthpiece, see the pipe anatomy entry.

Its Trail in the Catalogs

Where the shape's name comes from hasn't been documented; the link drawn to the English city of Liverpool is an assumption unsupported by records. The shape's catalog history, though, can be traced. In Dunhill's shape lists, tapered-mouthpiece Liverpool counterparts appear under numbers 33, 36, and 331. According to compilations, 33 corresponds to the standard-sized Liverpool, 36 to its larger sibling, and 331 to the long-shanked version; all three numbers are recorded as appearing in catalogs stretching from the late 1920s to the late 1960s. This means the shape stayed in the brand's lineup for roughly half a century. Peterson, meanwhile, referred to the same shape in its own traditional terminology as "Bolton"; this naming appears in the records of researchers who have studied the brand, but exactly which years the usage spanned hasn't been clearly documented.