Chacom Smooth Tulip Cutty w/ Brass 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.

This is a rather difficult pipe to pin down, and in more ways that one. For starters, instead of a series or line name beneath the Chacom nomenclature, the pipe simply has a star stamp. It also has no shape number that I’ve been able to notice. This, combined with the very unique shaping leads me to believe it must have been handmade, which wouldn’t be unprecedented given Chacom’s historic relationship with French master carvers such as Pierre Morel. It is a very beautiful pipe, perhaps best described (as I have) as a kind of slender, cutty tulip hybrid, leaning into the common motif of the Fleur in French pipe making, though in a very different way to most others in that genre. On the other hand, it is also reminiscent of the early Rhodesian shapes of Danish artisans, such as Sixten Ivarsson, or Emil Chonowitsch. Could they have influenced its carver? Chacom did hire a number of Danes to design pipes for them back in the 1970s. Whatever the circumstances, the result is certainly something else.

The condition is very good, too. Minor inner rim darkening and a few handling marks.

 

Details:

Length: 6.2″ / 157.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.79 / 20.06mm

Bowl Depth: 1.46″ / 37.08mm

Weight: 1.6oz / 46g