Billie W. Taylor II, Ph.D.
Collection

On one of those rare days when I had some time to surf the net, I came across a newsgroup note from Al Grosskopf offering to sell an unsmoked imported briar the pipe in its original pouch including literature about the product. I emailed Al to ask if the offer were still open. He wrote back saying that he would, reluctantly, honor the offer he made to the newsgroup. After some discussion, Al sold me that rarity and then, in a fit of generosity, threw in two other "the pipes." This was one of them. I gave it to a fellow who had shared tear-sheets of advertisements for the pipe that he had collected. At the time I gave it away, I thought that it was imitation briar and that this was a duplicate of #040. If it was truly a duplicate, this one is Rosewood, too. The pipe was carved from the rare wood, plasticized in a vacuum chamber, and had a pyrolytic graphite bowl liner inserted. There were eight hardwoods used to manufacture this line of pipes: teak, mahogany, cocobolo, purple heart, sycamore, rosewood, Tasmanian Oak and an ironwood.