Butz Choquin Maitre Pipier Deluxe Smooth Skater 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.  

I’m a big fan of Butz-Choquin pipes, and mainly for two reasons: Paul Lanier and Alain Albuisson. See, Butz-Choquin made great, reliable factory briars in the grand old French tradition. But they also offered unique, hand-made pieces, including the Maître-Pipier series. Maître-Pipier is French for “master pipe-maker,” and Butz-Choquin weren’t kidding with this designation, as these pipes were made by genuine masters. These being, of course, the aforementioned Lanier and Albuisson. In fact, I’m fairly sure that both were also inducted into France’s prestigious Confrérie des maîtres pipiers de Saint-Claude at one point or another. Anyway, the pipe itself is a really nice freehand skater style composition with an ivory-like acrylic ferrule and plenty of flame grain.

The condition is good. Some rim darkening and a very small, hair-line fracture in the ferrule. It’s acrylic, though, so it’s perfectly stable and is more of a cosmetic imperfection. I’ve adjusted the price in either case.

 

Details:

Length: 5.7″ / 144.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.86 / 21.84mm

Bowl Depth: 1.61″ / 40.89mm

Weight: 1.4oz / 41g