Depi De Luxe Bruyere Straight Smooth (149)

This reference example is a Depi pipe from the maker's De Luxe Bruyere line, executed as a straight pipe with a smooth finish and carrying the shape number 149. The designation 'Bruyere' is the French word for , the burl of the Mediterranean heath tree (Erica arborea) that became the dominant pipe-making material from the mid-nineteenth century onward, prized for its heat resistance, density, and figured grain. Its appearance in a line name such as 'De Luxe Bruyere' follows a long-standing convention among European workshops, where French-language terminology was used to signal quality material regardless of the factory's own nationality. The straight, smooth-finished form represents the most classical presentation in pipe making: an unbent stummel with a polished, uncarved surface that displays the natural grain of the wood without rustication or sandblasting. The stamped shape number, 149, reflects standard factory practice of the twentieth century, in which each catalogued profile was assigned a numeric code to keep production and ordering consistent across a model range. Dating rests on limited evidence. The line stamping and numbered-shape system are consistent with mid-twentieth-century production conventions, but on the available evidence the piece can only be bracketed honestly to the twentieth century, era otherwise undetermined. It entered the archive through the estate trade, and its provenance rests on the owner's account. The example is preserved here as a document of the De Luxe Bruyere line and of numbered-shape workshop practice in classical pipe making.