Antique KBB Bent Bulldog Block Meerschaum Pipe, Amber Stem, 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 The company originally made pipes under the KB&B name, but their innovative designs and patents soon led them to market several makes under the KB&B umbrella, including Kaywoodie,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.

While KB&B is today most popularly known for their briar pipes, such as the aforementioned Kaywoodie make, the company originally started, per Richard Hacker, by selling meerschaum pipes imported from Austria, along with clay pipes. This is an example of a KB&B meerschaum and, judging by the cloverleaf logo woven into its clam-shell case, it will have been made after 1881, when the trademark for the KB&B cloverleaf was issued. Regarding a more precise dating, as far as I understand it, KB&B began producing meerschaum pipes under the Kaywoodie make around the Second World War, so this pipe should be from before that. The stem is genuine amber.

This KB&B meerschaum is completely unsmoked. As a note for its buyer, amber is more brittle than acrylic or ebonite, so I advise a little extra care with it.

 

Details:

Length: 4.7″ / 119.3mm

Bowl Width: 0.67 / 17.01mm

Bowl Depth: 1.22″ / 30.98mm

Weight: 0.7oz / 20g