A Historical and Pictorial Guide To American
Christmas Pipes
1989-1990
The 1989 Christmas Pipe marked the end of a remarkable three
year run of great selling Christmas Pipes. The design was
suggested by Curt and modified by John and is very Danish in
nature. Arguably the most graceful of the entire series. We
somewhat borrowed the shank in the 1995 pipe. Curt and I
collaborated in is manufacture. I did the lathing and the drilling
and he did the final shaping. I don't recall how many we made but
it was a lot. certainly one of the most successful shapes in terms
of sales and design.
1990 was probably the worst of the Christmas Pipes in terms of
design and sales! This pipe was my design and I pushed it from the
start. I think it was a neat unique shape, and in retrospect only
one should have been made. This was the year the new pipe market
turned sour but I don't think I can use that as an excuse for it's
failure. The fault is in the design! All year I had been fiddling
with pipes that stood on their own stands. I got started making
Dunhill Cutty (a clay pipe design with the little foot) for
Georgetown Tobacco, that was very successful.I thaen made lots of
pipes with feet on them, I was smitten by the idea and as uniques
they worked well. My idea for the '90 Christmas Pipe was to add a
black lucite foot with a small brass ring accenting it to
compliment the same motif in the stem. I still think its a good
idea, possible one ahead of its time, but only time will tell.....
The pipe did balance upon its stand. The upshot was John had
almost a third of the 80-90 pipes left. Some sold in later years
in his Febuary sale and to later collectors. Eventually I took
back what he had left and converted them into a John Hayes Catalog
shape #507, pictured below. At this point we needed to do
something with them! To my knowledge the pipe pictured above is
the only unsold pipe.
This shape is available from John Hayes
Tobacconist