BBB 1975 European Pipe Smoking Championship Smooth Liverpool (Unsmoked Estate)

‘BBB’ originally stood for “Blumfeld’s Best Briars,” so named after Louis Blumfeld after he took over the historic Adolph Frankenau company in 1856. Later, this evolved into “Best British Briar,” then, even later, “Britain’s Best Briars.” Like GBD, Dunhill, and Barling’s, the story of BBB pipes is long and decisive not only for British pipes, but for the Anglo-French tradition more generally. Further still, BBB has is a make that proudly holds the title of “the oldest trade mark in the [pipe] industry.”

It can be strange for outsiders to appreciate, but pipe smoking can be a competitive sport. Every year, pipe clubs around the world gather to hold contests in which competitors smoke a pipe, with prizes awarded to the winners of these contests. Even stranger, these contests are not to see who is fastest at smoking a pipe, but who is slowest. Competitors are given a pipe, a bowl’s worth of tobacco, and, typically, two matches. Each gives their bowl a charring light with the first match, before giving it a true light with the second. The winner is the person who can keep their bowl going the longest before it goes out.

To keep things fair, the pipes smoked at contests are usually provided by event organizers, so that each competitor smokes the same pipe, the same amount and blend of tobacco, using the same two matches. Pipe manufacturers are typically enlisted to provide said pipes. In 1975, the French International Committee for Pipe Clubs (CIPC) held the European Pipe Smoking Championship in London, England, and it was BBB that provided pipes for the event. As you might have guessed, this particular pipe is one of them; a classic, lightweight, matte-finished Liverpool rendition, made by BBB to be smoked at the 1975 European Championship. In case you were wondering, the overall winner was an Italian gentleman (coming in at a very respectable 2 hours and 38 minutes), and the tobacco smoked during the event was good old Saint Bruno.

Funnily enough, this pipe is completely unsmoked (with an original, slightly time-worn bowl coating), so I assume it was a surplus of sorts. It comes with its original box, sleeve, and tamper, the latter being engraved with the event details.

Details:

Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.78 / 19.81mm

Bowl Depth: 1.45″ / 36.83mm

Weight: 0.9oz / 26g