A Historical and Pictorial Guide To American Christmas
Pipes
1987-1988
The Banner Years!
The 1987 shape was the most successful selling Christmas Pipe of all
time. It was one of the most difficult to make and was taken from a design
Curt had made for John during the past year. We changed the shank from an
oval to a round taper. This was one of the first collaborative undertakings
as far as pipe making for Curt and I. I did the lathing of the top of the
pipe and the drilling and Curt performed the final shaping. Up until then
we each made our own pipes start to finish. Also a first was that it was
nationally advertised in PCI magazine. As we had previously done a PCI club
pipe that year we were able to sell quite a few through the magazine. All
told we made close to 150 pipes ranging from $75 to $300. I think the pipe
speaks for itself. AS we promised never to make it again we fudged somewhat
and used the general shape in our Catalog shape 005 called the Caldron.
Following up on our success with the 1987 Christmas pipe came the '88.
It was a simple billiard, the first straight in the series with a paneled
diamonesque shank. Maybe it was just the times , who knows, I thought the
"Perfect Billiard" we did a few years later to be a better shape
but this one sold a lot better. I think we sold over 100 of these.
