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| Latest
News:
Talbert Pipes has relocated to Brittany, France! For information and amusement about our progress, please visit my Travelogue. (Updated 12-13-02)
• December 24th I've just added 3 new Ligne Bretagne Collectors and 2 regular LBs, as well as a new morta "Dragonfish". The Talbert Morta prices have been changed along the same lines as the Ligne Bretagne pricing - they will now only be sold in euros, but the euro prices have been lowered across the board to help out our US buyers (who are seeing the value of the dollar dropping alarmingly these days). For our European buyers the news is ALL good - this will mean lower prices on all three of our house brands. • December 17th I've added a new entry to the Pipes page - Crailco pipes. This is actually a distributor-backed "house brand" type of pipe, but we picked up a few of them on a special promotion because they were absolutely huge and cheap, just so we'd have something here for the occasional person looking for giant-size pipes. Check them all out here. I have also added a bunch of new Ropps in the Ropp catalog. For the sake of simplicity, I am changing the pricing presentation and will eventually change all the catalog pages on the site to reflect this - in the future, the prices shown will be the tax-free price. The use of terms like TTC and HT has confused folks a bit outside of the EU, and I've found myself being asked often exactly what price something is, so from now on the prices will be listed in "HT" form, meaning without tax. EU buyers will have to add in the VAT on top of this. • December 15th I've just posted three new morta Mini's in the morta Smooth Pipes catalog. They're particularly silly... • December 13th We've just posted a new selection of Prungnaud clays, six in total. We finally got another of the fumed hands, and also another of the very fantasy-themed pieces like the one I kept for myself some time back. Check them all out here. • December 12th Emily and I have both had a terrible case of the flu for the first week and a half of December, so that's punched quite a hole in our production schedule. At the moment the only new pipes are factory brands for the shop, though I hope to get the last two Ligne Bretagne Yule pipes up next week. Two new Big Ben Barbados shapes are posted in the Big Ben section of the "Pipes" catalog. Until now, this shape was not available in this finish in France, and we have the first examples! Also, I've just posted a new section for Savinelli and we have 4 nice little Melange models (the pipes with colored-wood bands & matching tampers) available. Better yet, we have them on sale for 95 euros TTC until December 25th, when they will revert to the MSRP of 118 € TTC. • November 25th New updates for the Ligne Bretagne catalog! I've just posted 3 new blasts which ought to interest anyone into the "short & fat" look, and there are also a couple of nice Collectors posted - these are just two of many to come, which were drilled during the work on both the LB Yule pipes and the Talbert Halloween pipes. In other news, I've redone the pics of our retail shop, since it has progressed greatly since the last shots were taken. Check HERE. • November 23rd, pt 3 For the first time, there is a small pile of pipes in the "Estate Pipes & Misc" section of the Pipes catalog. I've posted the original "rough sketch" pipe for the 2003 Ligne Bretagne Yule Pipes (note, the pipe is unsmoked), as well as several oddball pieces with their own strange stories. Weird, wild stuff, as Johnny Carson used to say. • November 23rd, pt 2 I've just updated the corncob pipe catalog with current stock, and added a new item - the bent MacArthur smooth, for those smokers who want one bowl they can smoke all week... • November 23rd I've updated our Big Ben catalog with several nice new pipes. We actually do a good bit more business in Big Bens than what shows on the website, but most of them sell in the shop before I have the time to photo and post them. • November 22nd Our second shipment of Tinsky briar pipes has arrived and is posted in the "Other Pipes" retail shop area HERE. Nice stuff! We have a larger selection this time and a wider range of pricing. Due to the big value difference right now between the euro and the dollar, EU buyers can get some extraordinary deals on these artisan-made pipes, which normally sell for a good bit more. All I can say is, get them while you can! • November 16th The last two of the Yule pipes are ready to ship out to Pipe & Pint tomorrow. That will complete P&P's set of 10, though I will also be doing a couple for our shop here, just in case of any collector interest in the EU. #10 came out pretty spectacularly, and made a ring grain comparable to many Talbert Briar blasts I've done in the past. My only regret was the lack of smooth pipes - only #1 was a smooth, and it had a few sandpits, but that was just the way the briar ran. • November 13th Another two of the Ligne Bretagne Yule pipes are off to Pipe & Pint - you can see the pics below. One of these, the #8, is the first one to have a small problem. The drilling and turning of the shank got out of whack somehow, resulting in the mortise being slightly off-center in the shank. It's not very noticeable though, and I opted to go ahead and finish the pipe since it was such a beautiful ring grain (and, I've seen much bigger gaffes in pipes more costly than this!) • November 10th Two more Ligne Bretagne Yule pipes are on their way to Pipe & Pint. Below are pics of the two - the first ring-grain sandblasts of the set. Anyone interested should be calling Larry at (336) 218-8610 for details, though I think he already has all ten of the set spoken for, even the ones that haven't been finished yet! But, there are always the possibilities of sales falling through, returns, etc, so it's worth calling regardless (besides, you know you need to order some tobacco anyway...). • November 7th The first four of the Ligne Bretagne Yule pipes are finished and on their way to Pipe & Pint in the US. We're working on more and will ship them in small batches as they are completed. I hope to do 10 this year as last year, with possibly one or two extras to keep in our shop here in Brittany, in case of local interest. These pipes are a much more elaborate production than last year's Yule pipes, and require a much greater amount of hand work. These are the first products of our new pipemaking procedure for the Ligne Bretagne line which will allow us to do limited-number sets of our own custom designs (more on this in days to come). This year's Yule pipes are being made in smooth and sandblast finishes, stained a deep red-orange, and fitted with decorative bands. The smooth pipes will cost $260 each while the blasts will be $220, putting them squarely between the $85-160 regular Ligne Bretagne series and the $345+ Talbert Briars. Pictured below are the first four which should be arriving at Pipe & Pint in a week or two. • November 2nd, Pt. 2 I've just posted the first pics of the Ligne Bretagne Yule Pipe for 2003 in the Ligne Bretagne page - go there to have a look. The pictured pipe is the shape model for the set, though the final pipes will be different in that they will all share an orange stain similar to last year's pipes. These pipes are being made in a wholly different process - see the LB page for full description. • November 2nd I've just posted a new page in the "Adventures" area - Halloween in Herbignac! This one is even complete with a short video slideshow. • October 21st Our first Talbert Briars and Mortas have arrived at Pipe & Pint, in the US. From now on, pipes that are in P&P's stock will be marked as such on the catalog pages, with: • October 19th The site has been quiet for a good bit since I've been working non-stop on finishing the last of the Halloween pipes. I'd debated about whether to try to do two simpler ones, but in the end I chose to try for one piece that was comparable to some of the best Halloween pipes of the past. Thus, the Halloween pipe area has now received its last pipe for this year - the "Mountains of Madness" pipe. I had intended to have this finished days ago and already have the auction closed, but due to scheduling problems we ended up with the interviewer & photographer for our P&T magazine article here his week. This was good and bad - it was great to have someone here during THE week that we had all the Halloween pipes present to be photographed, but at the same time the photography was much more elaborate than I had been expecting (I had the mental image of someone walking around with a digital camera for an hour or so, and in fact the entire workshop and retail shop became nests of cables and plugs and lights and exotic photography gear, with banks of lights and tripods and other things to trip and knock over). The photos took two entire days, plus the interview time and more importantly, a really fun visit with these folks - the pair are a freelance writer/photographer husband & wife duo who we met by internet when we arrived in France, and who have been incredibly supportive and helpful during our first year here. • October 4th One of our regular collectors sent me this very neat group pic of some of his pipes. He has pipes of all the ranges we produce - below one can see a Ligne Bretagne standard, a Ligne Bretagne Collector, two Talbert Mortas, and a bamboo-shanked Talbert Briar. • September 26th A new Halloween pipe, the Night-Gaunt, has been added to the Halloween pipe site. • September 19th I've posted several updates - there is a very nice sandblasted bulldog morta posted in the morta catalog HERE, a pile of new Prungnaud clays have been added HERE, and I've also posted some new items on the Halloween website HERE. One last note - due to a mix-up, a Ligne Bretagne bulldog sandblast was accidentally marked sold in the last update, but it actually is not, and is still here for sale. • September 16th I've got some more Prungnaud clays going up shortly (including a couple of Halloween clays!) but wanted to go ahead and post a pic of my own new Prungnaud clay. We got this one in with the latest order but it had a small crack in the exterior clay, so I seized upon this as an excuse to keep it all for myself! It is one of the neatest looking clays I have seen from Gerard - very original and unusual. Here it is: • September 7th The first two Halloween pipes are posted, with full descriptions and details in the FAQ on the Halloween pipes site. • September 6th A couple of small updates to the Resources section - see details there. Next up, the first Halloween pipes! • August 29th There are new updates all over the site. For a quick list, look for: • July 27th 2 new Talbert Briars, with more to come throughout the month of August. Also, there are 4 new mortas posted. We just received a wonderful surprise present - some friends who traveled out to the tip of western Brittany found a Breton artisan brewer that we hadn't yet encountered, and the beer brand has a great poster that will be of interest to any pipe smokers! • July 24th Lots of updates to the "Life in France" area - see the entry page there for the full list. 4 new Talbert Mortas and 2 new Talbert Briars should be going up this weekend, with a larger pile following about a week or two later. • July 14th I've just posted a couple of updates of particular interest to our French visitors. A fellow from the French pipe club on Yahoo was kind enough to help us with our translations, so the FAQ descriptions in French on the Talbert Briar & Talbert Morta entry pages should be greatly improved - real French instead of Babelfrench! Also, under Resources in the links section, I've added a link to Pipes-Tabacs.com, a French language site devoted to all aspects of pipe smoking and enjoyment. The new "Shop Visitors" area has expanded a little also. • July 8th Several small updates will be going up this evening. First up is a new photo-section in the "Life in France" area, "Places", devoted to the little seaside town and beach of Quimiac. We've also received our new Prungnaud order so there are new clays to see. We've gotten a number of smaller items that aren't on the website, such as new pipe tools, soft leather tobacco pouches, and such, but I probably won't post that stuff until after the August rush is past. Another item of interest is new on the Workbench page under "Resources", where there's a little teaser shot of the first Halloween pipe nearing completion. Also in "Resources" are a few pics of my very first meerschaum pipe carving attempt. I've been experimenting with different backgrounds for the catalog photos and most of the new shots have a grey background which seems to show some colors more accurately, though it lacks the neat "pipes floating in space" look of the all-white background shots. Next up, new Talbert Briars and Mortas! • June 28th From last night to this evening I have been posting a pile of new updates to various areas of the site. This is probably the last big update to the Ligne Bretagne and Retail Shop catalog sections until Fall, since the summer tourist season is nearly upon us and new stock will be going into the shop through August instead of onto the website. However, web visitors won't go hungry - the next two serious updates will be new Talbert Briars and Mortas. Here's the quick list of changes: • June 17th We received our order of corncobs today so the Missouri Meerschaum catalog section is now updated with current quantities in stock, plus a new pipe, the Mizzou. Also, I've just added a new page of location pictures to our "Life in France" website section of a nearby beach called Pénestin - a great little place to go and relax while the masses of tourists cram shoulder-to-shoulder down at la Baulle. • June 16th BIG update to the "Other Pipes" catalog - we have received our first shipment of artisan briar pipes by American pipemaker Mark Tinsky, and they've made a wonderful addition to the shop! To my knowledge, this is the first time Mark's pipes have had organized local distribution in Europe and it will be the first exposure to these pipes for many European smokers. • June 14th Many small updates to the retail shop section. We received a new small order of Old Boy lighters so we have 3 different styles in stock now. I've also finished and posted 3 new handmade morta pipe rests and 2 new handmade briar pipe rests. Finally, we have received our first few Butz-Choquin pipes and they are now posted for sale. • June 10th I have a bunch of new updates to many areas on the site, all of which will be posted over the course of today, and I'll be adding to this news update as new updates are made. Currently the new stuff is: • June 2nd It has been a long time since our last update to the "Life in France" area, and we've had a whole war in-between. I've added two new pages to the "Adventures" area. One is dedicated to Herbignac's "Marché de Potiers", a festival celebrating pottery in all its forms, and the other is a long and rambling pile of thoughts on the anniversary of our first year in France. • May 30th I've just finished a long-delayed HUGE update to the website - the addition of a section for our retail shop pipes! This area is where we will post all the other pipes we represent in our shop, such as IMP Meerschaums, Gerard Prugnaud clays, Big Ben, estate pipes, lighters, pipe rests, and all manner of other stuff....including some non-pipe-related items like pens, jewelry, and even handmade dolls. Please pop in and have a look around. It's been a lot of work but the framework is now in place and it will be easy to update in the future, so this is really just the beginning of what the retail site area will become. • May 22nd While I am contacting the various folks who have pre-ordered Prungnaud clays, here is one that is for open sale - it's a magnificent piece of excellent craftsmanship, with a gilt "sleeve" and a fumed hand supporting the small egg-shaped bowl. It's for sale so please email or call if you're interested. I'm am curious to see what sort of market there is for a $100+ high grade clay pipe - if it doesn't sell, however, I will be just as happy to have it on display in the shop! US buyers should note that this pipe is priced in euros, but the price shown includes VAT, so the USD price will be about the same after exchange rate variance (meaning around $100) • May 21st LOTS of updates and news! For starters: • May 17th The Ligne Bretagne catalog has added another 9mm filtered rusticated Oom Paul and another of the sandblasted pokers that are being finished up now. • May 14th The Ligne Bretagne sandblasts catalog gets its final update of stubby fat pipes, along with one ringer (a slender poker). That finishes out the short ones I had in the works but there are several more pokers to come, plus some other new pieces I'll be finishing up for the summer shop visitors. Also, a small update in the Resources section. • May 12th Another fat panel is posted to the Ligne Bretagne rusticated pipes catalog, this one in black. I hope to post another 2-4 tomorrow and that should just about finish out the run of fat panels for the moment. • May 11th Large Ligne Bretagne catalog updates are beginning now and will continue over the course of this next week. There are 3 new pipes posted - 1 smooth, 1 sandblast, and 1 rusticated. Two are samples of one of my personal favorite LB shapes, one which I have in my own collection and have been enjoying for months now. More soon! • May 9th Another Collector Grade has been posted in the Ligne Bretagne catalog. All else is quiet on the LB front... for the moment. Work continues on the special order backlog and there are a few new pics posted in the "Workshop" section under "Resources". • May 5th, pt 2 I've just posted two very dramatic sandblasted Ligne Bretagne Collector grades. One was done for a Talbert Briar special order but didn't work out quite as requested, while another was one that's been drilled and lying around waiting to be finished for a bit. • May 5th There have been several continuing updates in the Workshop section under "Resources", and the work on the order backlog continues. I've also managed to finish up something I've been working on in my spare time for a few weeks now - my first morta pen! It's a huge and unwieldy thing, and shows my penchant for the bizarre, but it came out well for a first try and I hope to eventually do more pens for the shop. • April 26th Several updates - Two new morta sandblasts are added to the morta catalog, I've posted a 5-part radio interview/show about us in the "Resources" section under "Workshop", and the Workbench page has been updated as well. • April 22nd The "What I'm smoking now" page in "Resources" has been completely redone, with links to the older pages at the bottom. • April 21st, pt 2 It's been a while since we updated the mortas! My dedication to working on our order backlog has kept me largely away from them, and Emily (our prime morta pipesmith) has been busy with the taxes for 6 weeks. There are now 3 new pipes posted, and more will be coming over the next few weeks. All 3 of the new pipes are blasts and 2 are rather unusual, while the next updates will probably be mostly mini's. • April 21st Our first Ligne Bretagne update comes after a long time - Emily has been busy day and night doing our French taxes and I've been occupied with the handmade briars so the Bretagne site has languished for a bit, but no more! There are 2 new smooth pipes and a new rusticated pipe, and the catalogs have been weeded out of the "sold" pipes to make it easier to see what is currently in stock. I hope to have many more new ones going up over the coming weeks. • April 16th Another couple of small updates to the "Contact" page. I've added a Mappy link to make it easier for visitors to find us, and also added my Yahoo username in case anyone using Yahoo's Messenger wants to chat. I'm not on very often but I will cheerfully make silly webcam faces at anyone who finds me online. • April 12th, pt 2 One more tiny update - the "Contact Us" page now has a little guestbook where visitors can leave comments. Just keep them clean! • April 12th We have just received our first stocking order of clay pipes by French master pipemaker Gerard Prugnaud. I've raved before about the quality of these pipes for the money, and as well about the sheer enjoyability of a clay pipe with a traditional vulcanite or acrylic stem for comfort - in a nutshell, they turn the usual awkward clay pipe experience into a "real smoke". Since it will still be some time before I can finish and post the website of our retail shop (and the pipes therein), I've decided to post these clays here for sale if anyone is interested. Once the retail site goes active, I will have detailed pics of each pipe with dimensions and so forth, but until then these pics will have to suffice. Don't hesitate to email if you see one (or several) you would like, though I would advise to buy two or three together if you're after the less expensive pieces since the shipping on a fragile clay pipe (with required liberal padding) would be as much as one $12 pipe itself! The clays below are by both Gerard Prugnaud and also English pipemaker Heather Coleman, with notes following each picture. All prices are posted without tax, so EU residents will need to figure for TTC prices. •
April 10th
Another addition to our site is on the "Contact Us" page, where we have added a new section for those folks who wish to visit us and/or the town on their holidays. We walked uptown and had a look into the Hotel Vince, which is a marvelous little place that's full to the brim with Breton charm and quirkiness. The place is a maze inside and seems to be assembled from several connected houses originally, but the rooms are nice and the prices are excellent, and they even have an English-language website! Check the Contact page for full details and link. Since I don't have any new pipes to show off, here's a picture of our cat Loki being ridiculous... •
April 7th I've just added a couple of sandblasted pokers to the Talbert Briar catalog. These are from a special order where I'd volunteered to make several versions of a poker blast with different stems for the buyer to choose from. Now that he's picked his pipe, the rest are for open sale. •
April 3rd More additions in the Resources area, including new workbench stuff. Enjoy! •
April 1st I've made some substantial additions to the "Resources" area. The former Links section has been transformed and expanded to include whole new areas where I will post some pics and stories of pipes in my own collection, and the Workshop area has gained several new items including a frequently-updated "What's on the Workbench?" page and a page where I will be posting pics of various special order pipes. •
March 21st Things have been quiet here as we've started work on our special order backlog, many of which are requests that date back to 2001, before we started the process of moving overseas! It's truly amazing how much work can pile up when you're effectively out of production for almost a year and only working at a snail's pace for months more. However, we had another event occur this week which merited news - we were visited by the Sous-Prefet for our prefecture (basically, a fellow high up in the regional government for our area, similar to a US state). He is a pipe smoker! This was the fellow who helped us out a great deal behind the scenes in getting our working visas and being able to undertake the massive task of purchasing this workshop and relocating. He seems to be a very nice fellow, and in gratitude for his help we made him a couple of gifts, seen below. The pipe and pipe stand were presented to him on behalf of both ourselves and the town of Herbignac as a "Thank you" gift for all the good work he has done for this entire area. The pipe stand below is made from morta and was cut for its dramatic cracking (the main problem that makes large morta pipes so rare and costly). The front edge is the outer bark of the trunk, which was sandblasted to make it resemble the ocean cliffsides of our Loire-Atlantique area - my intention was for it to be a reminder of both the Briere (in the material) and the coast (in the design). The pipe is perhaps a little conventional, but we did not know what sort of pipes the Sous-Prefet preferred so I chose a design that, while maybe not impassioned, is at least hard to dislike. •
March 13th 5 more new Ligne Bretagnes have been added - see the LB page for details. We've also finally posted the "Resources" section of the site, at least in partial form. It is likely to be an eternally evolving area much like everything else, and the Workshop page in particular will grow much more elaborate than it is now. Still, it's a start! We've posted the first part of a video tour of the workshop and there will be more, along with video from the retail shop, pictures and videos of the pipemaking tools, and other bits of info. The next big site addition will likely be the addition of the retail shop section, where we will post the other pipes and accessories that we sell in our shop here. •
March 10th 4 new pipes have been added to the Ligne Bretagne catalog and 3 new pipes are posted in the Talbert Briar catalog - see individual pages for details. We've recently added a simple webcam to our tools and I hope to soon have some videos for the site. We're thinking of posting a workshop walkthrough and a retail shop walkthrough, and possibly other videos as time and imagination and demand warrant. As with the last update, here is a group photo of all the new pipes so that they can be seen in size comparison to each other: •
March 3rd The "Life in France" section has been updated with further comments on the Iraq situation, plus a new page of our own questions about things here that we just can't figure out! •
February 27th I've just posted 3 new Talbert Briars, and also 3 new Ligne Bretagne pipes to follow up the LB Collector that we posted a few days ago. This is the first of a 2-part update for the Talbert Briars, and there are more pipes still in the workshop which I hope to finish and post within the next week. After that, we're going to try to reorganize our working time a bit to better accomodate all our pipes and keep production of each brand more even. Often people have a hard time telling relative sizes of pipes, so here for comparison's sake is a pic of all the newly posted pipes together: •
February 22nd The Ligne Bretagne section has been very quiet for a while, since almost all of the LBs that we've made have gone to Pipe & Pint for the TAPS show in Raleigh, NC, and I have been spending most of my time trying to finish a new set of Talbert Briars. However, we did produce one Ligne Bretagne Collector from this set and it is posted in the catalog now. Also, Emily is back to working on some new LB shapes and we hope to have a few more posted in the next few days. •
February 20th We were invited to visit a local English-learning class, and I've posted the story in the "Adventures" section of the "Life in France" website. •
February 15th A few more quotes have been posted on the page concerning current French/American relations. •
February 14th I've just added an update to the "Life in France" section in hopes of giving a little insight into the French attitudes towards the US, Americans, and the Iraq crisis. I know this is a heavy subject but I think it's also a subject full of misunderstanding at the moment, and I wanted to do a tiny bit toward helping people back in the US get a little better insight into how the French feel about current events. •
February 13th Things have been quiet here on the website for a while as we have been busy making pipes for the TAPS show in Raleigh, NC, in March. We've just finished up the box of pipes for shipment and they are on their way to Pipe & Pint, who will be exhibiting them for us at the show. There are 15 Ligne Bretagne pipes in a mixture of smooth and sandblast finishes, most of which are unstained naturals in shapes from mild to wild. Also, Larry will have 4 Talbert Mortas - 3 small grade 1 Top Hat shapes (1 smooth and 2 blasts) and 1 larger grade 2 with thick walls, a nicely smokable bowl size, and a very nice acrylic stem. Larry is also getting one Talbert Briar sandblast, and it's a pretty striking piece. It's another grade 4 blast, putting it on the same level as the Oceanic shown here on the website, but where the Oceanic is dynamic and wild this piece is more conservative and genteel. The blast is not as extravagant as the Oceanic's but it displays beautiful ring stacking with a mild orange stain for grain contrast and a gorgeous bird's-eye-covered smooth rim. I don't know what arrival date to predict but anyone interested can contact Larry at P&P at 336-218-8610 for more info. A group shot of all the pipes can be seen below, and if you click on the picture you can see a much larger resolution image, plus an item by item listing of grade and prices. And yes, we did go a bit berserk with pokers... •
January 27th The second of our morta catalog updates is now posted. There are 4 new morta mini blasts, 1 morta mini smooth, and 2 exceptional grade 4 freehand mortas with handcut stems, both as large as a good briar pipe. This finishes out the morta rush for the time - our next focus will be on making some Talbert Briars, so the morta catalog probably won't be updated for a month or more except for the occasional single item piece. •
January 20th The Talbert Morta catalog has been updated with 7 new pipes and one smoked pipe for sale. There will be another morta update in a week (I hope) which will include more mini mortas as well as a few very high grade mortas, and then we're off to work on briars for a bit. •
January 6th Happy New Year et Bonne Annee! The Ligne Bretagne sandblasts catalog has been updated with our first new pipes of the new year, and there are some very nice pieces there. Of particular interest is a 4 pipe matched set of sandblasted Canadians with horn stems. I've bene digging around further in our vast pile of supplies here and I uncovered a handful of horn Canadian stems - 5 to be exact. There may be more hidden away somewhere but so far these 5 are the only ones I have discovered so I decided to use them all at once for a 5 pipe set... which, as briar would have it, became a 4 pipe set due to one discard. I still have the one stem left, for future use someday. Also, aside from these new pipes, we have a box of pipes on the way to Pipe & Pint in the US so they will have some more Ligne Bretagnes for their stock. |
