Blog  by Steve Laug

Not long ago Jeff saw an ad for a set of Yello-Bole Hand Made pipes that were unsmoked and still wrapped in the display case. The display case is a yellow box that is slightly worn on the outside from time sitting and all of the likely transit it has had but is still in good condition.The case is hinged on the back edge and has red ribbon on each side keeping the lid open. The inside of the lid is a great advertisement on the brand as you can see in the first photo below. Look carefully at the descriptions of the pipes – custom sculptured bowls, unusual shapes, imported briar, permanent filter, large tobacco capacity, thick briar walls for cooler smoking. They are billed as Man-sized and over sized. The base of the box has six compartments divided by loose fitting pieces of cardboard. Each compartment holds two pipes for a total of twelve unsmoked Yello-Bole Hand Made pipes. The seller unwrapped the pipes and took the photos below. The briar is finished a lot like Tracy Mincer’s Custom-Bilt or Custombilt pipes with a rusticated finish and “worm trail” carvings around the bowl and shank. Each one has the famous Yello-Bole yellow honey coat on the inside of the bowl to “enable easier break ins that are sweet from the start”. Each one has the bowl insert spelling out the coating in the bowl. The stems are all in unsmoked condition and have the original price tags on them. Can you believe that they sold for $2.95 when they were new? Pretty remarkable that they were that price. The stems have a HM logo for Hand Made on the left side.  You can see that there are a variety of shapes from classic billiards, apples, panels, Dublins, Zulus, Rhodesians and others. All are unsmoked. The pipes arrived in Vancouver yesterday and I had to have a look at them all. I carefully unwrapped the pipe and grouped them by fours and took photos so you can see what they look like. All are unsmoked and have been sitting in the case for many years. This set of pipes is available as a set of 12 in the collector’s box on the rebornpipes store in the American Pipemakers Section. It is a set that I would love to keep but cannot add another one to the collection so I want to move it on to someone who would like this piece of history and enjoy breaking in some older unsmoked, New Old Stock Yello-Bole pipes. I am asking $400USD for it. If you are interested in purchasing the set email me at slaug@uniserve.com and I will gladly pass it on to you. Thanks for having a look.