I could not pass up the opportunity to add this Brigham Statesman to my collection. Despite its flaws, including a battered rim and a large bite-through in the lower bit, the pipe was in decent vintage shape and was certainly restorable. Besides, I didn’t have the “bent stacked billiard” Statesman shape in the collection, so this was a good chance to fill a gap in my rack.

These pictures of the pipe as it arrived on the worktable attest to a reasonable level of care given to the pipe over its lifetime. As I’ve already pointed out, the rim was ringed with dents under a layer of lava crust, and the stem suffered from a large void on the underside of the bit. The gap, however, had been carefully smoothed with a file to make the damaged stem as comfortable as possible for the piper.

The vulcanite stem was heavily…