Just bought my first pipe, and I'd appreciate your thoughts

[refinedspiritsmoker]

I know you have to hold the pipe and especially smoke it to fully judge it, but I am also sure many of you can easily generalize about certain pipe makers and styles. Does this look like a "good" pipe, I paid about 100 bones for it.

Maximun diameter of the pipe (bowl) is 1 5/8", Bowl is 1 3/4" high. Overall pipe is 5 5/8" long, stands 3 1/2" high and weighs 2.3 ounces. case has WDC logo. Pipe has FEC logo. I can see what look like hairline cracks running inside the amber (?) stem--but iit is solid/intact and I can't feel anything when i run a fingernail along the smooth outside surface of the stem.

 

[Richard Hester]

Very nice looking pipe the hair line cracks you see may be from a pipe cleaner scratching the inside stem I hope it smokes as well as it looks if so you got a good deal.
Best Regards
Richard

 

[refinedspiritsmoker]

What is an FEC pipe? Happen to know the company's full name? I'd just like to know more about the pipe maker. :?:

My google searching is coming up with nothing :scratch:

Except another FEC pipe on Ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Rare-FEC-Bulldog-Estate-Pipe-/170484493061?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27b1aaeb05#ht_500wt_1002

 

[refinedspiritsmoker]

Wow, I am exhausted after hunting for more information on the FEC pipe company. The closest thing I found was the F & C pipe company of london. :shock:

I thought I would share the pipe websites I found most useful or shall we say promising.


http://pipedia.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

This website is amazing, very well done, pretty much everything you could want to know about pipes with very useful links. :cheers:

http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/index-en.html

This website has thousands of logos so you can identify the maker of your mystery pipes! :study: :cheers:

 

[Centurian 803]

Not familiar with FEC but that is one fine looking pipe.

 

[refinedspiritsmoker]

FEC pipes: I found a reference in Wilczak & Cowell, Who Made that Pipe (1997) and the closest listing is "F.E.C. in shield, Maker Unknown, USA." Ah, So the FEC pipe is from the good old USA. That's a start.

 

[Justpipes]

Spiritsmoker,

That is an awesome find and acquisition. It is a fine speciem of a full bent amber stem. WDC stands for the William Demuth Company. WDC was probably the largest importer of pipes and tobacciana in the late 19th and early 20th Century. In all likelyhood they contracted or just purchased the FEC made pipe to market in their line. It is an amazing piece of Americana. Probably not worth a fortune but a nice piece to have and hold on too. WDC is most famous for their Presidential Series Meerschaums that actually began with result of Demuth's friendship with President James A. Garfield, a connoisseur of meerschaum pipes. Demuth presented two pipes to Garfield at his inauguration in 1881, one in his likeness, the other in the likeness of the President's wife. That was followed by "Columbus Landing in America," a 32-inch-long centennial meerschaum masterpiece that took two years to complete and was exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Then William Demuth commissioned the figurative meerschaum Presidential series, 29 precision-carved likenesses of John Adams, the second president of the United States (1797-1801) to Herbert Hoover, the 30th president (1929-1933). These meerschaums are very rare now!
In 1937 WDC became a subsidiary or the S.M. Frank Company (of Kaywoodie Fame) when the city of NY took the S.M. Frank Company's property by eminent domain and S.M. Frank negotiated the purchase of the WDC factory located in the Richmond Hill section of Queens, NY. WDC is probably best known in the modern era for their Wellington line of pipes that were manufactured in that factory until 1972. There are a ton of them on the market. I have one that was made around 1909. it's probably not worth much but I will never sell it!

You can read more about it at http://pipedia.org/index.php?title=William_Demuth_Company .

 

[refinedspiritsmoker]

justpipes,

Thank you for sharing your knowledge! Your idea of a contract between WDC and FEC is most likely correct. I have always thought that knowing the history of an object, especially an object that is important to oneself, adds an otherwise unseen pleasant richness and depth to the pipe.

:cheers: thanks again :cheers:

 

[refinedspiritsmoker]

http://pipesmagazine.com/blog/pipe-videos/collecting-william-demuth-co-wdc-pipes-related-tobacciana/

Here is a link to a very informative video presentation on the history of the WDC pipe

 

[Dock]

Gorgeous old WDC you have there. Great to find it with it's case too! I have a couple of these with the gold filled accents bought at junk sales. Both were missing their stems. I had looooong churchwardens made for them and I smoke them at X-Mas time exclusively. Below is a pic of one with my fez...

 

[Straight Grain]

I love the metal work on those pipes!!!