Butz-Choquin A Metz Origine 1 Spigot Churchwarden 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.  

There’s an interesting story to this pipe, which, since you’re hear, I might as well tell you. The name, A Metz, or rather à Metz (English: “in Metz”), refers to Metz, the French city where Choquin and Butz first began their pipe-making venture. Origine (English: “origin”) has something of a double meaning, referring both to Butz-Choquin’s birthplace and the model itself, which is based on the first design the company produced. By the looks of it, this is a relatively old iteration of the Origine, as while the mouthpiece is acrylic, the shank extension looks and feels like bone. For reference, when Butz-Choquin first made pipes like this one, the material used for the extension was albatross bone, which was quite common at the time. It could simply be a highly detailed acrylic imitation of bone, but something tells me this might be the real deal.

The condition is very good. Some inner rim charring.

 

Details:

Length: 9″ / 228.6mm

Bowl Width: 0.81 / 20.57mm

Bowl Depth: 1.44″ / 36.57mm

Weight: 2.0oz / 58g