Merchant Service Originals by G. Polla Sandblasted Billiard Handmade Briar Pipe, New

Description

Merchant Service was, originally, a mid-century British pipe brand founded by Herbert Merchant, and is today most remembered for manufacturing the pencil-shank billiard pipes favored by Bing Crosby. As with so many pipe companies of days gone by, Herbert Merchant Inc. was ultimately dissolved, with the Merchant Service story seemingly coming to a close—until something quite special happened. The Merchant Service name was purchased by another pipe maker—this time an American artisan and Anglophile—named Gregory Polla. Polla’s love for not only the classic “Bing” model, but English pipe design more generally, led him to revive Merchant Service pipes, handcrafting limited runs of iconic, traditional shapes in his workshop.

While Gregory Polla’s Merchant Service output has been, thus far, focused entirely on small, serially-produced batches of classic shapes (which MBSD Pipes also carries), the Merchant Service Originals series is something a little different. Polla is, after all, an artisan, and has for a long time desired to offer something even more creative than his usual Merchant service lines. This is where the Merchant Service Originals series comes in: like GBD’s Unique, Dunhill’s Collector, or Comoy’s Designer series, the new Originals are—as the name implies—individual, one-of-one designs based solely on Polla’s creative whims and the shapes best suited for a particular block of briar. Some lean toward extravagant, freeform styles, while others take cues from traditional Anglo-French staples not found in the Merchant Service catalog. This particular pipe recalls the classic, compact saddle billiards of the early 20th century, such as Dunhill’s shape 39, Sasieni’s 55s “Buckingham,” or GBD’s 9447—a resemblance made all the more apparent by its deep, tan sandblast finish.

 

Details:

Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.74 / 18.79mm

Bowl Depth: 1.50″ / 38.10mm

Weight: 1.4oz / 40g