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The shank is stamped VAUEN, nothing more. No white or grey dot rides the mouthpiece beside it, and at Vauen that absence is itself a fact: it places this pipe in the firm\'s standard production line rather than the higher, dot-marked grade.
This is a Vauen apple, smooth ebony-black finish, fitted with a tapered vulcanite stem cut to a fishtail slot over a 9mm filter chamber. Vauen is Germany\'s oldest pipe manufacturer, and this pipe carries the marks of its everyday line rather than a special run.
Bowl: briar
Stem: vulcanite
Mouthpiece: fishtail
Filter: 9mm
Stamped: \"Vauen\"
Vauen traces to 1848, when Karl Ellenberger and Carl August Ziener opened the first pipe factory in Germany, at Nuremberg. In 1901 that firm merged with Gebhard Ott\'s works, founded 1866, to form Vereinigte Pfeifenfabriken Nurnberg, managed by Ernst Eckert of the Ott family. It was Adolf Eckert who in 1909 coined the name VAUEN itself - the V of Vereinigte and the N of Nurnberg - the name that still appears on every shank the firm ships. A white-dot trademark followed in the 1920s, but a court case brought by Dunhill split the mark\'s territory: the white dot stayed for Germany and Austria, and a light-blue or grey dot took its place everywhere else, always on pipes graded above the ordinary line. A stem or shank stamped VAUEN alone, without any dot, denotes that ordinary line - which is what this pipe carries. Vauen also has a claim on the filter itself: in 1934 Dr. Perl\'s junior activated-carbon element, sized to what the trade now calls 9mm, was introduced through the firm, and it is largely why the great majority of pipes sold in the German market carry that bore today. A conical filter seat, called Conex, followed on most models from 1968 on, though its absence on any single pipe proves nothing by itself. The company has stayed in the Eckert family throughout; Alexander Eckert, fifth generation, has run it since 1982.
THE MARKS
- \"VAUEN\" stamped on the shank, no grade dot present
The seller identifies this as an apple - a bowl shape built on a full, rounded profile with a shortened, rounded transition into the shank rather than the straighter shoulders of a billiard. The tapered vulcanite stem narrows evenly from shank to button, ending in a fishtail slot that widens the airway at the bit rather than boring a single round hole through it, a cut chosen for a broader, softer draw rather than a tight, whistling one. An apple sits comfortably in the hand and reads well on a rack, the rounded bowl catching light differently at every angle it is turned to.
The finish is described as smooth, with a shiny ebony-black stain over briar. A smooth finish leaves the wood\'s surface unbroken by any blast or rustication, so grain, when the stain is light enough to show it, normally reads directly through the surface; here the stain is dark enough that its pattern is not detailed by the seller, so we leave that to the photographs. Ebony-black stains of this depth are typically built to sit high and glossy, which is consistent with the shine reported here.
Condition: the pipe has been smoked previously and is graded fair. The seller reports staining and scratches across the briar surface, along with a burn or darkness spot on the rim. No cracks, chips, or repairs are noted.
THE MEASUREMENTS
- Length: 143.0mm (5.6in)
- Bowl height: 47.0mm (1.9in)
- Bowl width: 44.0mm (1.7in)
- Chamber diameter: 20.0mm (0.8in)
- Chamber depth: 38.0mm (1.5in)
- Weight: 60.0g (2.1oz)
Ships from the Faridunhill / Pipe Collectors Encyclopedia archive. Worldwide shipping and professional sanitation on every estate pipe.
SKU: 019
