Billie W. Taylor II, Ph.D.
Collection

Dublin the pipe

Rare Wood - Purple Heart Prototype

pipe photo
The value of pipe #146 is n/a points.

I met Don Wells through my contact with Super-Temp Corporation. Don was Production Manager at the time the pipe and its kin were being made. He gave me three prototypes of the Rare Wood Collection. They are almost certainly the only ones in existence today. They are imprinted "MADE IN ENGLAND" and have hallmarks I can't read on the gold bands. Don tells me that these pipes were carved overseas to be used as models for a machine shop in Los Angeles to make the Rare Woods pipes. The pipes were carved from the rare wood, plasticized in a vacuum chamber, and lined with pyrolytic graphite. The plan was to use eight hardwoods (teak, mahogany, cocobolo, purple heart, sycamore, rosewood, Tasmanian Oak and an ironwood) in all six shapes, but only examples of rosewood Apple, Bent, Billiard, and Bulldog pipes have been found. This one being a prototype (purple heart, according to the Appalachian Woodworking staff), it was never plasticized nor lined.