The shank carries a stamp that names no maker - only the briar itself: "Real briar".

This is a smooth, bent billiard, stamped "Real briar" on the shank and fitted with a vulcanite tapered stem cut to a fishtail slot. No filter system is fitted; the airway runs straight from bowl to bit.

Before synthetic substitutes and reconstituted stone entered the pipe trade, a number of workshops stamped their bowls this way - a plain assurance to the buyer that the bowl in his hand was genuine briar root, not a filler or a compressed substitute sold as such. The mark speaks to material, not to house or maker, and it cannot by itself identify who cut this particular bowl. What it does tell a collector is narrower and just as useful: the wood under the stain is briar, root-cut, not a substitute wearing briar's name.

The bent billiard is one of the oldest working shapes in the rack. Take the straight billiard - a cylindrical bowl set on a shank running true to the stem - and bend the shank and stem downward in a shallow curve, and this is the result. The bend brings the bit closer to the jaw without steepening the bowl's angle in the hand, and it lets the pipe sit lower and closer to the chin when clenched, which is why the bent billiard has long suited smokers who keep the pipe in the mouth through a bowl rather than resting it between draws. Sibling shapes - the Dublin with its tapering bowl, the pot with its short wide chamber - share the same working principle but change the bowl's geometry; the billiard keeps its walls parallel and its diameter constant from rim to base, which is part of why it is so often used to judge a maker's proportion and finish work.

The finish is smooth - no sandblast or rustication, so the surface is left to show the wood as cut. Finish and grain: see the photographs. The stain is faint, and the surface shows light scratching across the briar, consistent with a pipe that has been carried and handled rather than kept shelved.

The stem is vulcanite - hardened rubber, the material most pipe stems were cut from through much of the twentieth century before acrylic became common - shaped here with a gentle taper from shank to button. The slot is cut fishtail-style: it widens and flattens just behind the button rather than staying a single round bore, spreading the draw across a wider opening at the point where the smoke reaches the tongue. No filter is fitted, so the draw runs the full length of stem and shank without interruption - what collectors call a direct smoke.

Condition: fair. The pipe has been smoked previously. The stain is faint and shows light scratching across the briar surface, consistent with carried use.

THE MARKS
- "Real briar" stamped on the shank

THE MEASUREMENTS
Length 130mm (5.2") - bowl height 44mm (1.8") - bowl width 33mm (1.3") - chamber depth 40mm (1.6") - chamber diameter 20mm (0.8") - weight 1.2 oz

Ships from the Faridunhill / Pipe Collectors Encyclopedia archive. Worldwide shipping and professional sanitation on every estate pipe.

SKU: 078