Chacom Crystal 183 Partially Sandblasted Billiard Estate Briar Pipe, French Estates

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.

Not unlike GBD and its Perspex sub-lines, Chacom has, over the years, also experimented with translucent mouthpieces, with one example being the Crystal line. As one might expect, “crystal” means much the same thing in French as it does in English, with the reflective, glassy mouthpiece of the Chacom Crystal being its namesake. This one is a traditional billiard rendition, whose choice of materials and partial sandblast is, curiously enough, quite evocative of the classic GBD Prehistoric Perspex. It’s nice to see someone “carrying the torch” in either case.

The condition is good. Some inner rim darkening and chamber slightly over-reamed.

Details:

Length: 6.2″ / 157.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.81 / 20.57mm

Bowl Depth: 1.56″ / 39.62mm

Weight: 1.6oz / 46g