By Steve Laug

This is another of the four pipes that Sonny in Salmon Arm, BC sent to me for refurbishing. He put them in the mail and I received them on Monday this week. I took a photo of the box of four pipes once I unwrapped them. There were 4 interesting and very unique pipes – a Vauen Solitaire 148 Freehand Filter Pipe that is huge, an older cased meerschaum with an overclocked stem, a Dunhill Wanghee Sandblast Dublin with a Bamboo shank and short saddle stem and finally an Anima wax drip sand blast Billiard carved by Brian McNulty. All needed varying degrees of restoration. The last pipe, a Meerschaum Billiard with a Bakelite Stem is next. It is in a worn green felt covered case that has a silver decal on the inside of the cover VPFN in an oval. The case is lined with a green plush lining. The pipe bears no stamping or identification at all. There is a brass repair band with newer marks on it set in place mid-shank with what appears to be a crack underneath. The repair is solid. The bowl has a light cake in it but not thick. There was some darkening and lava on the rim top as well as some nicks. The finish on the bowl was very dirty with grey grime ground in where the fingers wrapped around the bowl. There were nicks in the finish as well. There was also a line where the meer looked clean up the front of the bowl from top to bottom. The stem has a bone tenon and is Bakelite. The stem is slightly overturned or overclocked to the right. There were light tooth marks and chatter ahead of the button. I took these photos before I started my work on the pipe. I took a photo of the rim top and bowl to show the condition of both of them. There is a light cake in the bowl and it is clean. The rim top is dirty with tars/lava and some nick marks around the outer edge. The inner edge of the bowl looks to be in good condition. The photos of the stem show the light tooth marks/chatter on both sides ahead of the button.I took a photo of the stamping on the inside cover of the case. The stamping was clear and very readable. The VPFN on the inside of the case is shown in the photo. I removed the stem from the shank and took a photo to show the beauty of the pipe.I wanted to get some background on the VPFN stamp on the inside of the case. It was obviously made to fit the pipe so the meer was also a VPFN. Now what did that stand for? I did a Google search for VPFN and was led to a description of the VPFN tying the pipe that I am working on to Vauen. I found a link to Country Squire (https://www.thecountrysquireonline.com/product-category/pipes/vauen-pipes/) and an ad for Vauen pipes. I quote:

Quality and inventiveness have a tradition at VAUEN. OVER 175 YEARS OF VAUEN – that means: over 175 years of craftsmanship and experience paired with contemporary technology.

In 1848, Karl Ellenberger and his partner Carl August Ziener turned an idea into reality in Nuremberg: in the first German pipe factory, they made tobacco pipes from exquisite wood for connoisseurs all over the world. Together with the Gebhard Ott pipe factory, which was also founded in Nuremberg in 1866, the United Pipe Factories Nuremberg (VPFN for short) was founded in 1901 .

Knowing that I knew that I was dealing with a Vauen Meerschaum. I turned first to Pipephil’s site (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-v1.html). I did a screen capture of the information on the site. There was a great sidebar that gave some history of the brand. I include both of them below. There was also a note at the bottom of the screen capture below that has a link to the Vauen Dr Perl variant on the P-Lip pipe.In 1848, Karl Ellenberger and his partner Carl August Ziener establish a pipe factory in Nuremberg. In 1901 they merge with Gebhard Ott an other factory in town and they create a firm named Vereinigten Pfeifenfabriken Nürnberg (abbreviated: VPFN*). Shortly after Ernst Eckert, a member of the Ott family became manager of the society. During the 20th century Adolf, Ernst (jr) and Alexander Eckert (CEO in 2012) followed one another at Vauen’s head.* VPFN : “V” is said VAU in German (pronounce faou) and “N” becomes EN. Hence VAUEN.

I also turned to a blog written on rebornpipes by Dal Stanton (Pipesteward.com) that I quote a section from the blog below that gives a great sense of the history of the German brand and some photos from the website (https://rebornpipes.com/2021/04/27/breathing-new-life-into-a-german-vauen-6294-p-lip-saddle-billiard-for-a-special-young-lady/).

… I turn to the question of the history of the VAUEN name? I look to the History section of the VAUEN website and again, I am impressed with the presentation. Whenever I work on a pipe, and especially when a pipe name is new to me, I enjoy looking at its history to appreciate the pipe more fully now on my worktable. From VAUEN’s website:Quality and a wealth of ideas have a long tradition at VAUEN. 160 years of VAUEN: that means 160 years of skilled workmanship and modern technology and 160 years of experience in fulfilling the individual wishes of today’s pipe lovers, and those of tomorrow.

In Nuremberg in 1848, Karl Ellenberger and his partner Carl August Ziener turned an idea into reality: Germany’s first pipe manufacturer produced tobacco pipes for connoisseurs around the world using a selection of the best wood. In an amalgamation with the Gebhard Ott pipe factory, which was founded in 1866 in Nuremberg, the Vereinigten Pfeifenfabriken Nuremberg (United Pipe Factories Nuremberg, or VPFN) was born in 1901.  Under the management of Ernst Eckert, a descendant of the founding Ott family, a company was born whose products and services would shape the tobacco and smoking culture in Europe and overseas for the next 160 years and counting.

The question about the name, VAUEN, not being a name of a person and why it is capitalized throughout is explained:

In his search for a name that would be easily remembered by all pipe lovers, Ernst Eckert’s son, Adolf Eckert, coined a new name for the company in 1909: VAUEN – a composition of the first letters V (pronounced vow) of Vereinigte Pfeifenfabriken and N (pronounced en) of Nuremberg. A brand for the future was born.

Now it was time to work on the pipe itself. I cleaned the externals of the bowl with Before and After Briar Cleaner to remove the oils and grim from the finish. I rubbed it on with my finger tips and buffed it off with a paper towel to polish it up. I reamed the cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. I sanded the walls of the bowl with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper wrapped around a piece of dowel. The walls of the bowl are undamaged and smooth. I also cleaned the shank and internals of the shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and isopropyl alcohol. (I failed to take photos of the process).
I polished the meerschaum surface with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped the bowl down after each pad with a damp cloth to remove the sanding debris. The bowl began to take on a shine. Now it was time to wax the pipe I melted some beeswax and put a cork in the bowl to hold on to. I painted the bowl surface with the wax using a paint brush I caked it on heavily and set it aside to harden a bit. I heated the bowl with a heat gun to melt off the excess wax and let it drip in the container. I wiped it down with a paper towel. It looked good and the patina deepened. I took some photos of the bowl after buffing it with Blue Diamond. It is a beautiful bowl and the marks and scratches are a well-earned part of the pipe’s story. I polished them some but did not change the profile of the pipe so some still remain. The rim top particularly shows this wear and tear and I left it to remain. I set the bowl aside and turned to address the stem. I painted the threads on the bone tenon with some clear CA glue to build them up to correct the overturned stem. I sanded the ridges smooth with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper until the fit was correct on the shank. I removed it and greased the tenon with some Vaseline to lubricate the threads to ease the turning into the shank. It went very easily and the fit showed the corrected overturned stem.I polished the Bakelite with micromesh sanding pads – 1500-12000 grit pads. I wiped it down with Obsidian Oil after each sanding pad. I used Before & After Pipe Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine to further polish the stem. I gave it a final coat of Obsidian Oil before I put the stem back on the shank. Once I finished with the Vauen VPFN Meerschaum Billiard with the red Bakelite stem I put the stem back on the shank and carefully buffed the pipe with Blue Diamond polish using a lightly loaded pad and a soft touch. I wanted the shine but did not want to heat the Bakelite too much or bring damage to the banded shank repair. I used even a gentler touch on the bamboo. I gave the stem a vigorous polish being careful around the repair. Since I have already waxed it with beeswax I did not give it a coat of carnauba. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad and hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. It is a great piece of pipe history and looks better than when I began the process. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 inches, Height: 1 ¾ inches, Outer Bowl Diameter: 1 ¼ inches, Chamber Diameter: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 1.06 ounces/ 30 grams. This is the last of Sonny’s pipes I had to work on. I will pack them all and send them back to him this week. Thanks for reading this blog and my reflections on the pipe while I working on it. As always, I encourage your questions and comments as you read the blog. Thanks to each of you who are reading this blog. Remember we are not pipe owners; we are pipemen and women who hold our pipes in trust until they pass on into the trust of those who follow us.