Saturday, August 16, 2008

Vintage Ad (1949): The Kaywoodie Family Tree

click to enlarge

Here's a nice two-page ad from 1949 that I snagged from somewhere--I don't have the original paper copy. It was a little dim so I tried adjusting the brightness and contrast to bring the pipes out better, but the colors are a little off. For example, I don't think the billiard with the "plum finish" at bottom left was quite that purplish. Interesting finish, though. Clockwise from there is a "hand carved" Dublin (these kinds of deep gouges in the bowl are a real turn-off for me), bulldog, billiard "relief grain," and a pup. There were pups made in all shapes, this one is a bulldog, and were basically just miniature versions of the full-sized Kaywoodies. Cute, perhaps, and interesting for the collector, but small pipes like that generally smoke too hot because there's just not enough mass in the bowl. Next is a billiard sandblast, then a Rhodesian or a bull moose, whichever name you prefer, a poker with a meerschaum insert and another bulldog.

Starting at top on the right side we have a billiard shaped "Ninety-Fiver," a billiard Centennial which appears to have a very light or possibly no finish (unusual for a Kaywoodie), and then a Kaywoodie Carburetor. As you can see the Carburetor had a small hole in the bottom of the bowl so that theoretically a small portion of the air is drawn through the bottom of the pipe, mixing with the hotter air that has been drawn down through the tobacco, thus providing a cooler smoke. In my opinion this is just another gimmick that doesn't really have a noticeable effect. They also sold Carburetors as Yello-Boles, one of which I have so I have smoked this kind of pipe. After that is a Chinrester, which looks odd but is actually a very comfortable pipe. The Yello-Bole that I previously mentioned is actually a Carburetor Chinrester (two birds with one stone kind of thing). Then there is a Stembiter, which had an indentation in the end of the bit that was supposed to help prevent tooth damage from strong biters (did it work? who knows?). I had a couple of Stembiters at one time and the strange bit made no difference to me at all. Last of all is the Chesterfield, which was Kaywoodie's version of the Peterson System pipe. There is a small reservoir drilled in the shank which partially extends beneath the bowl to help drain away moisture from the stem. This is a trick which (in my opinion, of course) actually does do some good. I don't have a Chesterfield yet and acquiring one would be an excellent addition to my collection.

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