2002 JT Cooke Magnum Sandblasted Billiard Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

J.T. Cooke is a Vermont-based American artisan carver with a number of impressive credentials under his belt. Cooke was originally based at Elliot Nachtwalter and Jeorg Jemelka’s The Briar Workshop, in a role which included making pipes for Wilke’s tobacconist in Philadelphia. After leaving the Workshop, Cooke collaborated with Barry Levin in establishing the estate pipes market as we know it, by restoring pipes for Levin’s outfit. During this time, Cooke would also begin to make pipes under his own name. Today, Cooke’s pipes are among the most sought after in the American artisan scene thanks to their distinct and often unparalleled shaping, engineering, and finishing. As of 2024, and after five decades in the craft, Cooke has officially retired from pipe-making.

Though J.T. Cooke carved his first pipe in 1972, it was not until 1999 that he took up pipe-making full-time, leaving behind his other sources of work in pipe repairs and the estates business. With pipe-making his sole focus, he had the time needed to perfect those aspects of the craft that would usher in his status as an American pipe icon. This pipe, from 2001, immediately presents three things that came to be associated with Cooke’s work. The first and foremost is the sandblasting, which Cooke at this stage would perform up to five times to bring out the kind of crisp ring grain seen on this one. The second is the shape, with this pipe being one of Cooke’s classic billiards that, to my eyes, looks like a magnum rendition of early Dunhill LB designs; the last is a stem cut from one of Cooke’s own unique, hand-poured acrylic rods, inlaid with a taijitu.

This Cooke is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating. The bowl coating has begun to flake a little.

 

Details:

Length: 7″ / 177.8mm

Bowl Width: 0.90 / 22.86mm

Bowl Depth: 1.8″ / 45.72mm

Weight: 4.0oz / 116g