Pre-Kaywoodie KBB Blue Line Bakelite Billiard Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

KB&B, or Kaufmann Bros & Bondy, was an American pipe company established in the mid-19th century, most famous today for having created Kaywoodie. The company originally made pipes under the KB&B name, but their innovative designs and patents soon led them to market several makes under the KB&B umbrella, including Kaywoodie, Yello-Bole, and CPF.

Though we’ve had a handful come through in one recent estates batch, I want to reiterate something I said in listings for a few of those pipes: this is rare. Century-old pipes are not easy to come by (the reasons for which essentially boil down to the fundamental law of entropy) and the chances of finding one in a pristine, unsmoked condition are astronomically low. But here we are, with a pre-Kaywoodie KB&B Blue Line sitting before us, yet unsullied by smoke, or just about anything else for that matter. Thanks to the tireless research of Steve Laug and Richard Carleton Hacker, we know that this pipe will have been made after 1907 (the year of the invention of Bakelite, which forms the pipe’s stem) and before the KB&B name was superseded by Kaywoodie. Depending on who you ask, the latter will be somewhere between 1914 and 1924. This may well be my favorite antique pipe to land on my desk so far, in part because of its gold-plated filigree, and in part because the grain is just lovely. The aesthetic qualities of briar were far less appreciated during the time this one was made, so finding one with such beautiful bird’s-eye patterns is a real treat.

-J.M.

As indicated, this KB&B Blue Line is completely unsmoked, and comes in its original clam-shell case. The latter shows some slight wear, but nothing major. One thing I will say is that, if the buyer does intend to smoke it, please be extra careful with the tenon and the stem. Bone and Bakelite are a little more fragile than, for example, the Delrin and ebonite or acrylic commonly used in pipe manufacture today.

 

Details:

Length: 4.5″ / 114.3mm

Bowl Width: 0.71 / 19.03mm

Bowl Depth: 1.24″ / 31.49mm

Weight: 0.8oz / 24g