Butz Choquin Trocadero 1027 Smooth Bulldog Estate Briar Pipe, French Estates

Description

With its origins in an 1858 collaboration between Jean-Baptiste Choquin and Gustave Butz, Butz-Choquin ultimately become one of the premier smoking pipe companies in 20th century France. The brand is known both for its stylish variations on traditional English-French shapes and for its exploration of atypical and elaborate finishes. The brand is also known for its collaborations with celebrated French pipe-makers, such as Paul Lanier and Alain Albuisson, who made some of Butz-Choquin’s highest-grade pipes for the company.  

Of all of the classic shapes one finds on the charts of traditional, Anglo-French pipe companies, the bent bulldog is notoriously one of the most difficult to craft. Put simply, there more manual steps required to turn the bowl and cut the stem of a bent bulldog than most of the classical staples, meaning that there are more ways to fail and fill up the reject bin. But when a bulldog is done right, it is done right. I’ve mentioned this before, in relation to both the Dunhill OD 839 and the Sasieni 97 Grosvenor, and now I find myself facing another example of an ostensibly perfect rendition of the shape, this time from Butz-Choquin.

The condition is great. Some minor inner rim darkening.

 

Details:

Length: 5.6″ / 142.2mm

Bowl Width: 0.83 / 21.08mm

Bowl Depth: 1.15″ / 29.21mm

Weight: 1.5oz / 44g