Butz Choquin Cocarde Smooth Foursquare 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.  

It is fitting to have such a traditional shape from one of the most traditional of all pipe makes, Butz-Choquin – that shape being the foursquare. While not as popular among contemporary factories and artisans, the foursquare was a highly respected shape in the mid-20th century, with its name deriving from its signature paneled bowl and shank. From the looks of it, this would be something near to a mid-century piece, after Butz-Choquin relocated to Saint-Claude in 1951, but before the company changed its design philosophy to a far more colorful and modern one nearer the millennium.

The condition is very good. Some minor inner rim darkening and a couple of very small, superficial dents on the front of the bowl.

 

Details:

Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.78″ / 19.81mm

Bowl Depth: 1.46″ / 37.08mm

Weight: 1.2oz / 36g