Lucky Finds

[Centurian 803]

Several months ago I was prowling around an antique shop in Clinton and came across a rack full of pipes (in rather disconcerting condition) priced at a mere $1.60 each. Mixed in with the usual Dr Grabows and Medicos I found a Comoy straight billiard, a Sasieni two dot straght apple and an Amphora Prince. I bought them and turned the Comoy and Sasieni over to my local B & M to be cleaned and recovered (as much as possible). The Amphora I took care of myself as it did not exhibit the abuse the other two had obviously suffered.
For a very reasonable $16.00 each the pipes was returned to me beautifully polished and with the stems no longer green but restored to their former ebony glory.
The Sasieni and Comoy I have reserved for Va and Va/Per blends and the Amphora for Burley. All three pipes smoke wonderfully! I just finished a bowl of McClelland 2015 in the Comoy and it was sheer bliss. I would stack any of the three against my more expensive Petes, Savs and Stanwells.
Anyone else with a similar experience?
Needless to say I continue to prowl the antique stores, hoping to find more treasures of this sort; perhaps a Dunhill for ten dollars?

 

[Al in Canada]

Well done.

Is the Amphora a Dutch make or the later Dr. Grabow US pipe? I found 5 Amphoras and and a six place pipe holder (shaped like a sail boat) for $10.00 total, and all 5 of my Amphora pipes are sweet smokers.

And yes I have found a couple of Dunnies in shops at "affordable" prices. the most expensive that I have bought is $30.00! I have 5 currently.

Keep looking,

Al (in Canada)

 

[Handsome Dynamite]

I look for stuff like this, but never have any luck.

However when I was very young, my mom was at an estate sale and on a whim picked up two pipes that were in a drawer there for like, five bucks. They sat in the house for years. My parents hate smoking, but kept them anyway. Fast forward a few years, and I've started pipe smoking. I take them out, look online how to refurbish them to be smokeable. One is a 1930's Sasieni 4 dot Barclay billiard. The other is 1940s Comoy Old Bruyere.

 

[Hunter5117]

And yes I have found a couple of Dunnies in shops at "affordable" prices. the most expensive that I have bought is $30.00! I have 5 currently.

Al, I remember your story of finding 2 at the old general store now a pickers paradise in the town where I grew up on Hwy 3. I think I should have at least a partial claim on one of them for that reason.

 

[Centurian 803]

Well done.

Is the Amphora a Dutch make or the later Dr. Grabow US pipe? I found 5 Amphoras and and a six place pipe holder (shaped like a sail boat) for $10.00 total, and all 5 of my Amphora pipes are sweet smokers.

And yes I have found a couple of Dunnies in shops at "affordable" prices. the most expensive that I have bought is $30.00! I have 5 currently.

Keep looking,

Al (in Canada)

It's the Dutch made. Smokes like a dream. I have three pipes in the Prince shape, a no name, the Amphora and a brand new Kaywoodie I have yet to light.

 

[sstodvictory]

I can't match that story price wise, but in terms of recovering abused pipes, here's one:

I recently bought four Wally Frank White Bars on Ebay for $25 each. They were in good shape except for one flaw...a previous owner had heated the stems and introduced about a 30 deg bend, a pretty sharp bend, in each using a pliers. The plier tooth marks were impressed into the vulcanite of each. I took them into Jon's Pipe Shop for cleaning, but figured I'd need to have custom stems made as well. They were returned to me straight and smooth, and open, with practically no sign of their former condition. Only one small mark was left on just one pipe. Cost, $2 per pipe. Needless to say, I am impressed with what Michael La Due, their long-time kapnismologist, can do with hot sand and a polishing wheel. The four pipes are identical straight pots, but I think from different makers judging from the inlaid white bars.

Steve

 

[Justpipes]

Steve, you have come across some great acquisitions for sure. I wish I could say the same thing!

 

[Anonymous]

One is a 1930's Sasieni 4 dot Barclay billiard. The other is 1940s Comoy Old Bruyere.

Precision Pipe Repair & Restoration (LL here).

Not that many years ago I picked up two birth year (1948) Peterson billiards (one a Deluxe) for somewhere around $10 or $15 each on Flea Bay. Hardly anybody wanted stuff like that. So of course I had to go and pound the tub about what overlooked bargains they were . . .

Last week, after a long vacation from consummating pipe lust, scored two old (ca. 1978) fill-free smooths (one for the $9.50 opening price) by an Italian maker whose name you'd recognise if it were on them, which it isn't, since for the first four years or so of his arrangement with a chain of pipe stores that imported them, they were "House Branded: with the chain name.

The better one is at LL's in Southwest North Dakota at the moment for stem airway tweaking & stummel de-toxing. When it comes back, it will join the old Parker, the old Loewe, the old Stanwell second, the old Charatan and the old Peterson in the rack of world class smokers that cost very few Yankee dollars.

:face:

 

[Anonymous]

Nice score my man......... congrats, I found a Byford Orlik in the same manner in great nic for under a dollar!

 

[Al in Canada]

And yes I have found a couple of Dunnies in shops at "affordable" prices. the most expensive that I have bought is $30.00! I have 5 currently.

Al, I remember your story of finding 2 at the old general store now a pickers paradise in the town where I grew up on Hwy 3. I think I should have at least a partial claim on one of them for that reason.

Hunter I"ll be sure to send you your portion next time I trim the cake. :twisted:

Al (in Canada)