June 30, 2009.
It is time to move on to more important matters, like
listing pipes, but I will do a short re-cap here of what
transpired on this spot for the past two weeks or so.
For new arrivals, I applied my power of prognistication to
determine which of today's pipes might be most
sought-after in 50 years, or so. Popularity is not based
on quality or any other tangible asset. It is based on
what the Tastemakers say and do. (I think there is a
book, maybe published in the late '60's or early 70's
called "The Tastemakers" if you want to know what that
is about.) So, in short, our playful journey was an
attempt to preempt (or is it pre-sage?) the
tastemakers.
For Denmark, I think that Lars Ivarsson, Teddy
Knudsen, Bo Nordh and dark-horse Tonni Nielsen will be
regarded as the pipes to acquire in 2060. No genius
needed for those picks. For Italy, Castello and pipes
from the Becker family will still be considered the
worthwhile old pipes to collect. U.S. pipemakers in this
category (and we are looking at all of this from the
perspective of a U.S. collector...in Europe or Japan, the
view might be very different...how would I know?) are
Michael Butera, Larry Roush and Jim Cooke.
This leads me to today's concluding paragraph, which
is not going to be much more than a disclaimer, because I
can not discuss the German pipe makers or the Japanese
pipe makers, but for two different reasons. I can not
discuss the German pipe makers because I am involved in
exclusively importing and distributing three of the most
important entrants, Joura, Barbi & Wolfgang Becker. I
must avoid the appearance of self-aggrandizement. I do
not want to avoid self-aggrandizement, just the
appearance of it, so I will skip over them in this
discussion. If you are a caring and sensitive soul, relax
because we can be certain the omission will not cost any
German pipe maker a single sale.
As for the Japanese pipe makers, I just do not know
what to say. Some of them make beautiful sculptures,
but I am not advanced enough to understand how they
might be perceived over the long haul as practical pipes.
Taking into consideration that abject ignorance, it would
be wisest not to say anything about them at all, other
than to confess that I can never seem to get any to sell.
Thus, as wrong as I will be in making these
predictions (as wrong as everybody else is when they
make their predictions) none of them represent pipe
makers with whom I have any special arrangement. I am
simply not capable of objectivity when my personal
interests are at stake, and neither is anybody else.
A small number of readers wrote in to contribute their
opinions (including some pipe makers...that was very
welcome) and I want to thank those people. There was
never any pretense that I might have greater insight
than anyone else, although except for some few of you, I
have been around this hobby for longer than most. Who
knows what that translates into, maybe some kind of
unconscience sense of what is going on in the hobby.
We recently took some more photos and will have pipes
to post, for those of you patient enough to keep coming
back. I should be able to start putting pipes on the web
today.
Marty
The following is a link to a page describing our Oct./Nov.
pipe show in Las Vegas: www.westcoastpipeshow.com
The most thoroughly wasted of all days is that on which
one has not laughed.
~Nicolas Chamfort~
"The Good Book" one of the most remarkable euphemisms
ever coined. Ashely Montagu
It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand
that bother me, it's the parts that I do understand.
Mark Twain
So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the
Gospels in praise of intelligence. Bertrand Russell
Scripture, n. The sacred books of our holy religion, as
distinguished from the false and profane writings on
which all other faiths are based. Ambrose Bierce
.
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