Blog by Steve Laug

For years now I have checked craigslist Vancouver in hope of finding pipes. I have found a few but they never worked out in terms of picking them up. They always were sold to someone just before I arrived to pay for them. So when I saw this lot on craigslist I was not too hopeful. I fired off an email to the seller and got no response regarding the lot. It had seven pipes, a humidor rack, a two pipe rest and two large unopened 200 gram tins of Borkum Riff tobacco. Yesterday I went online and found the seller’s phone number. I could not believe it when he said that he still had them. I made arrangements to pick them up on Friday. Here are three photos from the advert on craiglist.

I talked my youngest daughter and number two daughter into going with me to pick them up. I drove to the seller’s apartment with low expectations. He was selling the lot for $99 or best offer. When I arrived I phoned and he let me into the apartment. It was a bit of déjà vu for me. He was a stroke survivor – same age as I am. I too am a stroke survivor. He had stroked on the left side of his brain leaving his right side damaged – same as me. He had the curled hand and a dragging foot with a bit of slurred speech the same as I had. I stood quite speechless for a few moments and remembered my own struggle with my stroke. I then breathed a prayer of thanks to God for the gracious recovery he gave me through the prayers of his people and hard work. I have very little remaining of the stroke damage. God is good.

We talked for a little while and he showed me the goods. I decided to pay him what he asked – or at least close to it. I had $97 with me so I gave him that and he gave me a bag for the loot. At this point in the game I had not looked too closely at the pipes. When I got to the car and put them in the trunk I went through them quickly. There were some great pipes in the lot along with some I had never heard of. When I got home I unpacked the loot and took the next series of photos. I was very pleased with what I had purchased. The next two photos show the pipes. Starting with the column on the left of the photo below the names of the pipes were as follows.

Column 1: (left side)
1. Paradis Brothers 1989 shape 93 bent with a broken tenon. Paradis is a Canadian made pipe. It had a dent on the left side of the bowl. The tenon is threaded and I will be able to remove it and put a new tenon on the stem. This one may have had one bowl smoked through it but it was not even darkened from mid bowl to the bottom.
2. Italian made MAT Pot sitter with a stuck stem. The rim was covered in a coat of tars and oil. The stem has tooth marks in it on the top and on the underside near the button.
3. Dutch Ceramic double wall billiard with Delft coloured painting on the front of the bowl of a man in the stocks. It reads Holland on the left side of the shank. The stem is acrylic and is clean. The cork gasket that holds it in the shank is perfect. This is an unsmoked pipe.
4. Royal Danish 33 straight bulldog made by Stanwell. The bowl has a thick cake in it and the top is damage and sloped toward the front of the bowl. The stem is oxidized and has some deep tooth marks in it on the top and bottom near the button. There appears to be a small bite through on the underside.

Column 2: (right side)
5. Squashed Tomato stamped JPL Bruyere, St. Claude, France. Large chunk of nice briar with lots of birdseye on the bottom of the bowl. The bowl has a light cake and the rim is covered with tars and oils. The stem is oxidized and has tooth marks and tooth chatter. JPL stands for Jean Pierre Lacroix. http://pipedia.org/wiki/Lacroix
6. K&P Dublin (Peterson’s) Canadian with a sterling silver band and a p-lip. The rim has some build up and the bowl is lightly caked. The stem is in excellent shape with no bite marks or tooth marks. It is oxidized.
7. Castello Sea Rock 15 AF – made for the North American market with the “diamond” stem insert. Military bit with tooth marks on the top and underside of the stem near the button. Slight build up of white calcification like the stem had originally been smoked with a softee bit. This one has a full bowl of unsmoked tobacco. There is some rim damage from knocking out the pipe on the front outer edge and some tars and oils on the back surface of the bowl.

I am quite happy with the find. It was a purchase well worth the price. I was more than glad to have paid the bill. The meeting with the seller was also memorable and gave me a lot to be thankful for this Good Friday.