Jared Coles 2016 Smooth Acorn w/ Plateaux Estate Briar Pipe, American Estates

Description

Jared Coles is a North American pipe-maker based in California. Coles is one of the undisputed masters of the contemporary American artisan scene, but that shouldn’t be surprising given the teachers he’s had. A pipe smoker since an early age, Coles discovered high-grade pipes while studying at college and took up pipe-making himself in 2008. Coles received precious instruction and advice on making his own high-grades from Jeff ‘J. Alan’ Gracik and Todd Johnson, with the Gracik continuing to provide guidance when Coles teamed up with his friend John Klose to found the collaborative J&J Pipes brand. J&J achieved significant success, but was dissolved in 2015, after which Coles and Klose continued to produce pipes under their own names.

I had the pleasure of watching Jared Coles compete in the 2023 “Battle of the Briar” documentary recently, directed by Adam Floyd of Get Piped. It’s a great watch, and I heartily recommend it for anyone interested in pipe making and pipe culture today more generally. The “Battle” itself was a competition hosted by the Chicago Pipe Show, to see who could make the best pipe in 60 minutes or less. Of course, the competitors were no ordinary pipe makers—that would be much less fun—but were selected from the great artisans of our time. Coles was, therefore, pitted against Scottie Piersel and Tommi Ascorti, of Caminetto. I won’t spoil the winner, but I will say that, after watching what Coles could come up with in under an hour, I wasn’t surprised by the masterpieces that he regularly produces, when time constraints are far less severe. This Danish acorn, with its supple shaping, expertly expressed flame grain, and ever so slight incorporations of plateaux burl and formal asymmetry, is exactly what a high-grade artisan pipe should be. But, already being familiar with Coles’ work for years, I never expected anything less.

The condition is great. Some slight inner rim darkening, but nothing major.

Details:

Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.91 / 23.11mm

Bowl Depth: 1.54″ / 39.11mm

Weight: 1.9oz / 54g