Tag Archives: Jeantet French Made pipes

This Paneled Jeantet Crystal MAT Dublin is a pleasant surprise

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Blog by Steve Laug

This Paneled Dublin with a thin shank came to us from an online auction on 05/30/2019 from Girardville, Pennsylvania, USA. The finish was dull and lifeless looking. There was grime ground in around the sides. There was one fill visible on the right side toward the front. The rim top had a bit of darkening and lava build up on the beveled edge of the rim and the top. The bowl had a thick cake that was overflowing. It was a bit of a mess. The pipe is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Crystal [over] Jeantet and on the right side it reads St. Claude follow by MAT. There is no shape number on the shank. The stem has the Jeantet logo on the left side – a J in an oval. The slender vulcanite saddle stem is quite pretty but was quite heavily oxidized and had some tooth marks and chatter on both sides ahead of the button. Overall it was quite a pretty pipe. Jeff took some photos of the pipe before he worked on it. Jeff took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the cake in the bowl and the lave on the beveled inner edge of the top. The lava is quite thick on the inner bevel. He also took photos of the stem to show the tooth marks and chatter on the oxidized stem. He took photos of the bowl and heel to show the condition of the finish. You can see the small fill toward the top of the bowl on the edge of the right side panel. It is solid but it is visible at this point.Jeff took photos of the stamping on the shank and the logo on the stem. They read as noted above and were in excellent condition. I turned to Pipephil’s site to see what I could learn about the Crystal line of Jeantet pipes (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-jeantet.html). There was nothing specific about that line though was a brief summary of the history. I quote from the top bar below:

The company joined the Cuty-Fort Entreprises group (Chacom, Ropp, Vuillard, Jean Lacroix…) in 1992. In 2010 it dropped out and the brand isn’t part of the group any more. The label is owned by the Jeantet family (Dominique Jeantet) again. The pipe production is discontinued. Dominique Jeantet retired in 2000. See also: Antidote, Duke of Kent, Grand Duke, Hermes, Sir Bruce, Sir Duke

I turned to Pipedia to get a more detailed history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Jeantet). There as a short history there that I have reproduced below.

The firm of the Jeantet family in Saint-Claude is first mentioned as early as 1775. By 1807 the Jeantets operated a turnery producing in particular wooden shanks for porcelain pipes and wild cherry wood pipes. The firm was named Jeantet-David in 1816, and in 1837 the enterprise was transformed into a corporation as collective name for numerous workshops scattered all over the city.

The manufacturing of briar pipes and began in 1858. 51 persons were employed by 1890. Desirous to concentrate the workers at a single site, the corporation began to construct a factory edifying integrated buildings about 1891 at Rue de Bonneville 12 – 14. This took several years. In 1898 Maurice Jeantet restructured the business. He is also presumed to enlarge Jeantet factory purchasing a workshop adjoining southerly. It belonged to the family Genoud, who were specialized in rough shaping of stummels and polishing finished pipes. (In these times it was a most common procedure to carry goods from here to there and back again often for certain steps of the production executed by dependant family based subcontractors. Manpower was cheap.)

Jeantet was transformed to a corporation with limited liability in 1938. By that time a branch workshop was operated in Montréal-la-Cluse (Ain), where mainly the less expensive pipes were finished. 107 employees – 26 of them working from their homes – were counted in Saint-Claude in 1948 and 18 in the Ain facility.

The Saint-Claude factory was considerably modernized by ca. 1950 installing (e.g.) freight elevators. In 1952 the southern workshop was elevated. 80 workers were employed in 1958. The factory covered an area of 2831 m²; 1447 m² of the surface were buildings.

The climax of the pipe production was reached around 1969, when thirty to thirty five thousand dozens of pipes were made by 72 workers (1969). But then the production continuously dwindled to only six or seven thousand dozens in 1987 and only 22 workers were still there. Even though, around 1979 a very modern steam powered facility for drying the briar had been installed in the factory’s roofed yard.

Yves Grenard, formerly Jeantet’s chief designer and a great cousin of Pierre Comoy, had taken over the management of Chapuis-Comoy in 1971. Now, to preserve the brand, the Jeantet family went into negotiations with him, and resulting from that Jeantet was merged in the Cuty Fort Group (est. 1987 and headed by Chacom) in 1988 along with the pipe brands of John Lacroix and Emile Vuillard. Chacom closed the Jeantet plant, and the City of Saint-Claude purchased it in 1989. After alternative plans failed, the buildings were devoted to wrecking. The southerly workshop was wrecked before 1992.

Today Jeantet pipes were produced as a sub-brand by Chapuis-Comoy who’s mainstay is Chacom of course.

Jeff carefully cleaned up this Jeantet Crystal Paneled Dublin with a vulcanite saddle stem with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime on the rim top and bowl sides. He reamed the bowl with a PipNet pipe reamer and then cleaned up the inside of the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. He scrubbed the internals of the shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until the airways were clean and the pipe smelled fresh. The pipe looked much better once the bowl and stem were clean. He scrubbed the stem with Soft Scrub to remove the oxidation and then let it soak in Before & After Pipe Stem Deoxidizer. He rinsed it with warm water when he took out of the soak. Before I started my part of the work I took photos of the pipe. It is a pretty looking Petite pipe. I took close up photos of the bowl and the rim top to show the condition. I also took photos of both sides of the stem to give a sense of the condition of both sides at the button.I took photos of the stamping on the left side of the shank and stem and the right side of the shank. It reads as noted above and is very clear and readable.I took the stem off the shank and took photos of the pipe to give a sense of its beauty and proportions. There was a stinger contraption in the tenon. It was threaded and screwed in place. I took a photo of it in place and removed. I will polish it and leave it up to the next pipeman to decide what to do with it.I polished the bowl and rim top with micromesh sanding pads – dry sanding with 1500-12000 grit pads and wiped down the bowl after each sanding pad.     I rubbed the bowl and shank down with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the surface of the bowl sides and shank with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect the briar. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The Balm did its magic and the grain stood out. I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. Because it was quite clean I decided to touch up the Oval J stamp on the left side of the saddle. I filled in the stamp with white acrylic fingernail polish. Once it had hardened I scraped it off. The top right side of the stamp was too shallow to hold the acrylic.The stem was in good condition and the light marks and chatter should polish out easily. I polished the stem 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 and set it aside to dry. I put the parts of the Jeantet Crystal MAT Panel Dublin back together and I lightly buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and gave several coats of Carnauba Wax to seal and protect it. I polished it with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine and then with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The briar really looked good with the wax highlighting the grain around the panels on the bowl. The thin shank and saddle stem gave additional beauty to the petite looking pipe. It was an interesting looking pipe. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 5 ½ inches, Height: 2 inches, Outer Diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches x 1 ¼ inches, Diameter of the chamber: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 27 grams/.95 oz. The photos below show the finished pipe. If you would like to add it to your collection I will be adding it to the French Pipe Makers section of the rebornpipes store. Send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading the blog. It was an interesting restoration.

I don’t like Painted Pipes – This Jeantet Meerlined Brummer 944 Billiard gives me pause

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Blog by Steve Laug

This white Billiard with a Tortoise Shell acrylic stem came to us from an online auction early in 2020 from Columbus, Michigan, US. From the title of the blog you know that I am not a fan of painted pipes. That is probably because I have come to understand that the briar under the paint is quite often horrible and filled with putty and flaws. Paint covers a multitude of “sins” and I am sure this is no exception. Added to that the pipe is also meerschaum lined. What made me pause was the great looking tortoise shell stem and the gold shank band that give the pipe a touch of class. The painted surface was in good condition with no nicks of scrapes. The rim top had a bit of darkening on the meer lining and a little on the paint but even that was not too bad. The bowl did not have a cake which was also a bonus that helped. It is stamped on the left side of the shank and reads Jeantet [over] Brummer and has the shape number 944 stamped on the underside of the shank. The stem has the Jeantet logo on the left side – a J in an oval. On the right side it is stamped Hand Cut and on the underside it is stamped FRANCE. The Tortoise Shell stem is quite pretty but upon examination there is a round bite through on the top side just ahead of the button. Jeff and I had picked up several pipes that the previous owner had customized by filling in the slot with putty and drilling a hole in the top. It was obviously the owner’s attempt at making a “P-lip” style smoker. We are pretty sure this was one of them. In any case it would need to be reworked – opening the slot and filling in the hole on the top side. Jeff took some photos of the pipe before he worked on it. Jeff took photos of the bowl and rim top to show the meer lining and the condition of the rim and bowl. It has some darkening and light lava on the back side but otherwise looked good. He also took photos of the stem to show the hole in the top side. You cannot see it but there is a plug in the slot on the stem end that will need to be removed. Other than that the stem was in excellent condition.Jeff removed the stem from the shank to show the stepped down Delrin tenon and the gold band on the shank end. It is a pretty looking pipe and the shank is surprisingly clean looking.He took photos of the bowl and heel to show the condition of the painted surface. It is quite remarkable that it is in such great condition and appears to have been very well cared for by the previous pipeman or woman. Jeff took photos of the stamping on the shank and the logo on the stem. They read as noted above and were in excellent condition. I turned to Pipephil’s site to see what I could learn about the Brummer line of Jeantet pipes (http://pipephil.eu/logos/en/logo-jeantet.html). There was nothing specific about that line though was a brief summary of the history. I quote from the top bar below:

The company joined the Cuty-Fort Entreprises group (Chacom, Ropp, Vuillard, Jean Lacroix…) in 1992. In 2010 it dropped out and the brand isn’t part of the group any more. The label is owned by the Jeantet family (Dominique Jeantet) again. The pipe production is discontinued. Dominique Jeantet retired in 2000. See also: Antidote, Duke of Kent, Grand Duke, Hermes, Sir Bruce, Sir Duke

I turned to Pipedia to get a more detailed history of the brand (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Jeantet). There as a brief history there that I have reproduced below.

The firm of the Jeantet family in Saint-Claude is first mentioned as early as 1775. By 1807 the Jeantets operated a turnery producing in particular wooden shanks for porcelain pipes and wild cherry wood pipes. The firm was named Jeantet-David in 1816, and in 1837 the enterprise was transformed into a corporation as collective name for numerous workshops scattered all over the city.

The manufacturing of briar pipes and began in 1858. 51 persons were employed by 1890. Desirous to concentrate the workers at a single site, the corporation began to construct a factory edifying integrated buildings about 1891 at Rue de Bonneville 12 – 14. This took several years. In 1898 Maurice Jeantet restructured the business. He is also presumed to enlarge Jeantet factory purchasing a workshop adjoining southerly. It belonged to the family Genoud, who were specialized in rough shaping of stummels and polishing finished pipes. (In these times it was a most common procedure to carry goods from here to there and back again often for certain steps of the production executed by dependent family based subcontractors. Manpower was cheap.)

Jeantet was transformed to a corporation with limited liability in 1938. By that time a branch workshop was operated in Montréal-la-Cluse (Ain), where mainly the less expensive pipes were finished. 107 employees – 26 of them working from their homes – were counted in Saint-Claude in 1948 and 18 in the Ain facility.

The Saint-Claude factory was considerably modernized by ca. 1950 installing (e.g.) freight elevators. In 1952 the southern workshop was elevated. 80 workers were employed in 1958. The factory covered an area of 2831 m²; 1447 m² of the surface were buildings.

The climax of the pipe production was reached around 1969, when thirty to thirty five thousand dozens of pipes were made by 72 workers (1969). But then the production continuously dwindled to only six or seven thousand dozens in 1987 and only 22 workers were still there. Even though, around 1979 a very modern steam powered facility for drying the briar had been installed in the factory’s roofed yard.

Yves Grenard, formerly Jeantet’s chief designer and a great cousin of Pierre Comoy, had taken over the management of Chapuis-Comoy in 1971. Now, to preserve the brand, the Jeantet family went into negotiations with him, and resulting from that Jeantet was merged in the Cuty Fort Group (est. 1987 and headed by Chacom) in 1988 along with the pipe brands of John Lacroix and Emile Vuillard. Chacom closed the Jeantet plant, and the City of Saint-Claude purchased it in 1989. After alternative plans failed, the buildings were devoted to wrecking. The southerly workshop was wrecked before 1992.

Today Jeantet pipes were produced as a sub-brand by Chapuis-Comoy who’s mainstay is Chacom of course.

Jeff carefully cleaned up this Jeantet Brummer Painted Billiard with a Tortoise Shell stem with Murphy’s Oil Soap and a tooth brush to remove the grime on the rim top and bowl sides. He cleaned up the inside of the bowl with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife, scraping away the light cake on the bowl walls. He scrubbed the internals of the shank and stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol until the airways were clean and the pipe smelled fresh. The pipe looked much better once the bowl and stem were clean. The plug in the slot of the stem was removed and the hole in the top was cleaned up as well. It was ready to repair when it arrived in Vancouver. I took photos of the pipe before I started my work on it. I took close up photos of the meer lined bowl and the rim top to show the condition. I also took photos of both sides of the stem to give a sense of the damage to the top side and the good condition of the underside.I took photos of the stamping on the left side of the shank and stem and the right side of the stem. It reads as noted above and is very clear and readable.I took the stem off the shank and took photos of the pipe to give a sense of its beauty and proportions.The bowl of the pipe was in excellent condition and did not need any work. The only major issue on the pipe was the hole in the top of the stem. I greased a pipe cleaner with Vaseline and slid it into the slot under the hole in the stem top. I filled in the hole with clear super glue. Once the glue cured it was a white spot that needed more work to blend into the stem surface. Once the repair cured I sanded the repair with 220 grit and polished it with 400 grit wet dry sandpaper. I polished out the tooth chatter on the underside of the stem with the same sandpaper and started polishing it.I used a dark brown and black stain pen to approximate the feathery wisps of the tortoise shell finish of the acrylic. I gave the repair a top coat of clear CA glue and let it cure. I sanded the spot smooth.I polished the stem surface with micromesh sanding pads. I wet sanded it with 1500-12000 grit sanding pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with Obsidian Oil. I polished it with Before & After Stem Polish both Fine and Extra Fine polish. I gave it a final rub down with Obsidian Oil. I lightly buffed the bowl and stem with Blue Diamond on the buffing wheel and gave it a coat of Conservator’s Wax to seal and protect it. The pipe took on a deep shine in the painted briar and in the tortoise shell acrylic stem. The twin ring gold band also looked very good. It was an interesting looking pipe. The dimensions of the pipe are Length: 6 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outer Diameter of the bowl: 1 ¼ inches, Diameter of the chamber: ¾ of an inch. The weight of the pipe is 60 grams/2.12 oz. The photos below show the finished pipe. It is a surprisingly nice looking pipe. If you would like to add it to your collection I will be adding it to the French Pipe Makers section of the rebornpipes store. Send me a message or an email. Thanks for reading the blog. It was an interesting restoration.

New Life for a Jeantet Neuilly ¾ Bent Apple

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Blog by Steve Laug

The next pipe on the work table is a pipe I picked up recently at St. Vincent de Paul thrift shop. I caught the bus to meet my daughter for lunch and while I waited for her to get off work I walked over to the nearby shop. I went through the display cupboards and found an interesting looking pipe. It was a ¾ bent pipe with a rounded edge rectangular shank pipe. It was priced pretty high for a used pipe but I struck a deal with the clerk and got it for a reasonable price. I took the pipe over to the coffee shop where my daughter works and took some photos. I took the pipe home and finally got around to working on it today. I took some photos of the pipe before I started to clean it up. It is stamped on the underside of the shank Jeantet over Neuilly and next to the shank/stem junction it is stamped France. It is also stamped on the right side of the shank with the numbers 81-3 It is a three-quarter bent apple-shaped pipe with a natural finish. The finish was dirty and stained from the grime of long handling without cleaning. The rim top had an overflow of lava from the thick cake in the bowl. It was dirty and hard to tell if the finish was nicked or damaged under the grime. The outer edge of the bowl is rounded over to the sides of the bowl. The stem was black vulcanite and had tooth chatter and some calcification on the top and underside near the button. It was stamped JEANTET on the top of the saddle stem. I took a closeup photo of the rim top to show the lava overflow from the thick cake in the bowl. The rounded outer edge of the rim carried down into the bowl. The inner and outer edges of the bowl look very good underneath the lava overflow. There is a thick cake in the bowl. The stem was in good condition. There was some tooth chatter and scratches on the top and underside near the button. There was some light oxidation on the top and underside of the stem. I reamed the bowl with a PipNet Pipe reamer to remove the majority of the cake in the bowl. I cleaned up the remnants of cake with a Savinelli Fitsall Pipe Knife. To finish the cleanup of the bowl I wrapped 220 grit sandpaper around a piece of dowel and sanded the walls of the bowl. I used a dental spatula to scrape the buildup of tars on oils on the walls of the mortise. I scrubbed the mortise and the airway in the shank with alcohol, cotton swabs and pipe cleaners. I took some photos of the pipe to show the condition at this point in the process.Before I could clean out the airway in the stem I needed to remove the caked and dirty stinger apparatus in the tenon. I used a pair of needle nose pliers to twist the stinger out of the tenon. I took a chance that it was threaded and it was not long before I had it free of the tenon.I cleaned up the aluminum tenon with 000 steel wool. I cleaned out the inside of the stinger and the airway in the stem with pipe cleaners, cotton swabs and alcohol.I scrubbed the top of the rim and the exterior of the bowl with isopropyl alcohol and cotton pads to remove the buildup of lava and grime on the bowl. I rubbed down the briar with Before & After Restoration Balm. I worked it into the smooth surface of the briar with my fingertips to clean, enliven and protect it. I let the balm sit for a little while and then buffed the bowl with a cotton cloth to raise the shine. The following photos show the bowl at this point in the restoration process. The grain is really starting to stand out. I polished the briar bowl and shank with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the rim off after each sanding pad to remove the dust. The pipe really shone once it was polished. I took a photo of the stamping on the underside of the shank. It read Jeantet over Neuilly. Along the shank/stem junction it was stamped France. On the right side of the shank it read 81-3.I set the bowl aside and turned my attention to the stem. I used a folded piece of 220 grit sandpaper to sand out the tooth chatter and marks on both sides of the stem just ahead of the button. They were not deep so it did not take too much to remove them.The Jeantet stamp on the top of the stem is quite worn. There is not enough to recolour with white paint but enough that in the right light it is readable. I polished the stem with micromesh sanding pads – wet sanding with 1500-2400 grit pads and dry sanding with 3200-12000 grit pads. I wiped the stem down after each pad with Obsidian Oil to remove the sanding dust on the vulcanite. I finished polishing it with Before & After Pipe Stem Polish – both Fine and Extra Fine. When I finished with that I wiped it down with a final coat of Obsidian Oil and set it aside to dry. I polished stem and bowl with Blue Diamond to polish out the remaining small scratches. I gave the bowl and the stem multiple coats of carnauba wax. I buffed the pipe with a clean buffing pad to raise the shine. I hand buffed it with a microfiber cloth to deepen the shine. The pipe polished up pretty nicely. The natural oil finish works well when polished to really highlight the variety of grains around the bowl and shank. It has birdseye on the sides of the bowl and cross grain on the front (toward the right) and back of the bowl and on the shank both top and bottom. The polished black vulcanite stem works together with the beautiful grain in the briar to give the pipe a rich look. The finished pipe is shown in the photos below. The pipe is ready for a new home. The shape, finish and flow of the pipe and stem are very well done. The dimensions are Length: 5 1/2 inches, Height: 2 inches, Outside diameter of the bowl: 1 1/4 inches, Chamber diameter: 3/4 inches. I will be listing this one on the rebornpipes store shortly. Thanks for walking through the restoration with me as I worked over this beautiful little Jeantet Neuilly.