Genod CHAUMONT 300 Smooth Straight Apple-Pot, Vintage French Estate

This reference example documents a French estate pipe attributed to Genod, presented as a smooth-finished straight pipe whose bowl form is described as an apple-pot — a hybrid profile combining the rounded, gently swelling walls associated with the apple family and the shortened, broad-chambered proportions of the pot. The straight configuration places the shank and stem on a single axis with the bowl, one of the oldest and most enduring arrangements in era pipe design, favoured for its balance and its simple, legible silhouette. The smooth finish leaves the surface of the stummel fully visible rather than concealing it beneath rustication or sandblasting. Genod is a pipe-making name rooted in Saint-Claude, the town in the French Jura long regarded as the historic centre of the French pipe industry. Workshops of this tradition supplied classically shaped, machine-and-hand finished pipes to domestic and export markets across the twentieth century, and estate examples bearing Saint-Claude marques circulate widely as representatives of that manufacturing heritage. Within this example's markings, CHAUMONT functions as a line or series designation, while the number 300 serves as the factory shape reference identifying this apple-pot pattern within the maker's catalogue. Dating rests on the character of the markings and the owner's description of the piece as vintage. French Saint-Claude makers of this type did not employ systematic factory date codes, so individual pipes cannot ordinarily be fixed to a single production year; instead, line names, shape numbering conventions, and general stylistic character permit only a broad placement. On that basis, the honest conclusion for this example is a twentieth-century vintage bracket, with the precise period of manufacture left undetermined. As catalogued here, the pipe stands as a shape-and-marque reference for the Genod CHAUMONT series and its number 300 apple-pot form.