Chacom Artisan 409 Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

Chacom is one of France’s most historic and iconic makes. Its founders, the Comoy family, began their career as boxwood pipe-makers in the early 1800s, before briar had even been discovered, with Henri Comoy (of Comoy’s fame) emigrating to England in 1879 and founding the country’s first briar pipe factory. In 1922, Henri and his nephews, the Chapuis, founded the Chapuis Comoy pipe factory in Saint-Claude, France, which shortly after began producing pipes bearing the partnered families’ names – ‘Cha’ for Chapuis, and ‘Com’ for Comoy. Chacom has been the biggest name in French pipes ever since.

I’m not too familiar with Chacom’s Artisan line, as it hasn’t been produced for a great many years, but if it is anything like the Artisan lines of makes like Savinelli, it may well have been carved by artisans in a workshop, rather than produced using factory methods. This is just speculation, mind, but as indicated by the stamping, the stem is hand cut, which is not advertised as the case on most Chacom pipes. The shape is quite curious too, not conforming to anything on the standard English-French shape chart. The shank and stem remind me of a Maigret; the height and curvature of the bowl is more like a pear; but the bowl also has bead-lines à la the Rhodesian. It’s a curious hybrid, but I’d say it works very well.

Despite being out of production for many years, this Chacom is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating to help ease in its first smokes. It also comes with its original box and sleeve.

 

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.86 / 21.84mm

Bowl Depth: 1.68″ / 42.67mm

Weight: 2.0oz / 58g