Design Berlin Rico’s-01 Smooth Dublin Estate Briar Pipe Unsmoked 9mm

Description

Design Berlin is, as the name suggests, a German pipe-making company – and is in fact the number two best-selling German pipe make after Vauen. Founded in 1948 as Pfeifenstudio Hartmann by Hubert Hartmann, the company adopted the name Design Berlin and the lowercase ‘db’ logo in 1975 as part of a modernization push.

I’ve categorized this Design Berlin as a Dublin, but it’s certainly not your average Dublin. It reminds me a little of some of the Charatan “cup and saucer” freehands, as it has a distinctly wide base from which the rest of the bowl seems to emerge, but it also reminds me more of the old Butz-Choquin Galion series. Like the latter, this one has a certain maritime feel to it, with the bowl section being reminiscent of a ship’s bow. I’m not sure who Rico is, or was, but I’d say he has/had good taste in pipe design.

This Design Berlin is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating. It is chambered for 9mm filters as standard, but should accommodate an adapter of some variety if non-filtered use is preferred. It also has a twin bore stem, which is standard on Design Berlin pipes – much like some of the pipes Radice or Comoy’s used to make.

 

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.78 / 19.81mm

Bowl Depth: 1.67″ / 42.41mm

Weight: 2.1oz / 62g