Revisiting the Westminster: The Alpiner

I had mentioned this pipe back in January, but I recently uncovered information on it that warrants further mention.

"This will be, by far, the oddest looking pipe in your collection."

This is a House of Westminster one-piece cherrywood pipe. House of Westminster imported these pipes from Switzerland. This shape is called the Alpiner, and came in three sizes (2 oz, 3 oz, and 4 oz). This example is the "medium," or 2 ounce.

I found information about this pipe thanks to pipepages.com. If you take a look at this page from their 1939 catalog, you can see that the stem for this pipe is very short and stubby. My pipe did still have the original stem, but it is badly chewed and needs to be replaced. This stem looks too stubby and awkward, to me. However, in order to preserve the original appearance of this pipe, I will request that the new stem match the old one. Who knows, maybe I'll like it. Also, I think a longer stem would make it hard to hold in the teeth. The longer the stem, the greater the leverage.

This pipe sold for 49¢ in 1939, postpaid. Thanks again to Chris' Pipe Pages for this excellent resource.