Vauen Dr Perl Inter Style S, Sandblasted Stack Estate Briar Pipe, German Estates

Description

Vauen stems from Germany’s oldest tobacco pipe manufacturing company, tracing its roots back to the founding partnership of Karl Ellenberger and Carl August Ziener in Nuremberg, 1848. Out of the Ellenberger-Ziener partnership soon came the Vauen make itself, which grew to become Germany’s largest and most enduring pipe brand – a title that it continues to hold to this day.

Though it may not look like much, this is a quite fascinating pipe. If you’ll allow me, I will say a few words about why.

Let’s start with the name of the series, or rather the two series this pipe belongs to. Those familiar with modern Vauens will know ‘Dr Perl’ not as the name of a pipe, but the name of an activated charcoal pipe filter currently sold by Vauen. Most Vauen pipes sold today are chambered, like this one, for those filters. But this was not always the case, and Vauen only began to sell pipes chambered for paper filters in the 1920s. Dr Perl was a real person – Dr Jacques Perl – who worked for Vauen and invented a type of paper filter in 1921, and the first activated charcoal filter in 1934. So, from the 1920s onwards, Vauen began selling pipes with 3mm, 6mm, and 9mm bores.

This would therefore be a Vauen pipe from some time in the 20th century, back when Vauen was not synonymous with filtered pipes and needed a series name to indicate those pipes which were. I would hazard a guess at 1950s-1960s. The pipe has an ebonite stem, which no Vauen pipes have today, and it has a white dot on that stem. These days, the white dot, or rather the “weißer Punkt” on a Vauen pipe means it is a high end line. Way back in the past, however, this white dot was Vauen’s trademark, having been introduced in 1911 (one year prior to Dunhill’s famous ‘white spot’). It was, therefore, common to all Vauen pipes.

So, this is a pipe that may appeal to filter smokers as much as it may to collectors. It is a little piece of European pipe history.

The condition is good. Naturally, it has a few handling marks and some darkening on the rim, but these are superficial imperfections.

 

Details:

Length: 6″

Bowl Width: 22.0mm

Bowl Depth: 1.95″

Weight: 1.4oz / 42g