This morning my wife, daughters and I got up early and drove down to Bellingham, Washingto for the day. It was my number two daughter’s 30th Birthday so she wanted to do a bit of shopping and then celebrate with a Mexican dinner. Typically I take them to the shopping mall and then leave for two hours and hit my favourite antique malls and pipe shop. We sat at the border for an hour and a half and then went to breakfast together. Afterward I left them at the mall and headed to my shops.

The first stop was the Senate Smoke Shop. I always try to stop by and support the owner Mike. He has become a good friend so I like to support him when I can. Besides I wanted to pick up a bunch of pipe cleaners and some supplies for my humidor. I also wanted to see if he had any estate pipes in and some new tobaccos. We talked for about an hour while customers came and went. I added items to my pile – pipe cleaners and some humidor supplies. He had taken his estate pipes home so I would have to check back another time.

I did find some well aged Peter Stokkebye Luxury Twist Flake. It was in one of his bulk jars so I picked some up. It is a pure Virginia blend from the best fields of Zimbabwe and southeastern United States. Rolled twist flake. The blend is handrolled into spun cakes; thereafter Cavendish pressed and cut – one of a kind. The descriptor says that it is lightly aromatic, with medium strength but I cannot taste any topping on it. I settled my bill and put the stash in the car. It was now time to check out my antique malls.
The first shop had some pipes on display with a rack and jar but the $50 price for what was included – a broken Falcon, a cracked Dr. Grabow, a nylon Falcon style pipe and a bowl without a stem – precluded my purchase. I tried to bargain with the seller for just one of the pipes – a nice little bulldog sans stem but she would not break up the set. That was it for that shop. It has been a great source in the past but it did not deliver today.

The second shop had one pretty burned out Viking for sale and nothing more. The price was not too bad for that one but I did not want another Viking to clean up. I walked around the shop and looked deep within the display cases and under boxes and in cans but found nothing more to catch my eye. It was beginning to look like I was going to strike out. I don’t think I have ever gone home completely empty handed. Generally I find something to add to the refurb box. This time I really needed to find a few pipes as the box is down to the last two pipes and one bowl to refurbish. None of them are particularly exciting so I have procrastinated working on them.

I left the second shop and made my way to the third shop. It was incredibly busy inside with a lot of folks looking at the stock and filling the narrow aisles of the store. I called out my greetings to the owner who has become a familiar friend to me – I have bought a lot of pipes from him over the years. He immediately responded that he had purchased 20+ pipes from a widow recently who was cleaning out her late husband’s pipes and tobacco. I have to say I got a little excited at that point. He took out the pipes and put them on the counter for me to go through. He knows my habits by now and stood back to watch as I assessed what he had purchased.

A cursory glance told me that there were some keepers in amidst the junk. There were several newer Kaywoodies, some newer Williards that were badly burned and chipped with many fills all over the bowls. There was a strange rusticated cherrywood with a metal insert in the bowl and shank. There were some bowls that needed stems but none that really caught my eye. I separated the ones that I did not want from the pile and he returned them to the display.

When I was finished there were six pipes in my pile. The old gent whose collection these came from must have liked certain styles of pipes. There were several pairs of pipes. The first pair that I pulled out was English Made Tinderbox, Liverpool shaped, Meerschaum lined, thin shank pipes with remarkable grain. The second pair was also English Made (the stamping on the right side of the shank is the Comoy’s Circle. They are ¾ bent billiards, shape 215 and are remarkably clean for their age. Both are stamped Royal Coachman Other than a few small nicks they are very clean. The last two pipes are distinct. The first is an apple that is stamped Brentwood Supreme and on the right side London England over 335.The second is an American made Mastercraft pot with a chamfered rim and nice grain. All should clean up nicely and the stems are unchewed.

The shop normally marks the pipes at $15 each but as I was looking over my pile and making decisions about them the shop keeper wanted to know if I was interested in pipe books. I said of course and he directed me to a pile of books that had two pipe books in the stack. The first was Jean Rebeyrolles, Collectible Pipes a book I already had so I passed it up. The other was The Pipe Book by Alfred Dunhill. Though I already had this book I picked up another copy because I tend to give them away to friends over time. It is a good read for pipemen. It was in new condition and was marked at half the $25 price inside the cover. I quickly did the math – 6 pipes at $15 each was $90 and the book for $12.50 made the total $102.50 and add to that the Washington sales tax and I was looking at $110 for the lot.

That was not too bad a price for what was there on the counter but as I was busy calculating the price, the shop keeper said he would take $70 for the lot. I was stunned and did not respond immediately and he looked at me and explained the cost per pipe etc. I quickly mumbled a thank you as I was quite pleased. That meant that the pipes and the book were a mere $10 each. I returned home with the six pipes, a pipe book, six bundles of pipe cleaners, some tobacco and the humidor supplies. I was set for awhile. I had some more pipes to refurbish, a gift book and some tobacco to enjoy while I worked. Not too bad a day at all. It is days like these that keep me going out on the prowl for estate pipes and tobacciana. It never ceases to amaze me what I come home with.