Wally Frank Golden Ring Smooth Vase Estate Briar Pipe, French Estates

Description

Wally Frank was a historic American tobacconist, which had its house-brand pipes produced by numerous established makes. These makes included Charatan, Sasieni, Weber, and many others.

With this in mind, the question is: Who made this Wally Frank pipe? From what I’ve seen, the Golden Ring pipes Wally Frank sold were made in France. That narrows it down a little, but not nearly enough. Let’s look at the shape, though. I know where I’ve seen shapes just like that before, and it’s the same place that I’ve seen other, almost identical, Golden Ring shapes: Butz-Choquin. More specifically, in Butz-Choquin’s Galion (English: “Galleon”) series. Considering that Butz-Choquin also made a version of their famed Origine design for the American tobacconist, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had made this series for the latter, too.

The condition is very good. There’s some darkening on the inner lip of the rim and a little residual oxidation on the pipe’s ebonite stem, but it is overall very well preserved.

 

Details:

Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.76 / 19.30mm

Bowl Depth: 1.59″ / 40.38mm

Weight: 1.4oz / 40g