Big Ben Select 1614 Straight Sandblast Billiard, Netherlands

This reference example is a straight billiard from the Big Ben Select series, carrying the shape number 1614 and finished in a sandblast texture. The billiard is the foundational form of the pipe maker's vocabulary: a cylindrical bowl of roughly equal height and width, set at a right angle to a straight shank of comparable length, with the stem continuing the shank's line to the bit. Its proportions are the benchmark against which nearly all other classic shapes are measured, and a straight billiard remains the most widely produced pipe shape in the world. The sandblast finish, achieved by blasting the stummel with abrasive under pressure, strips away softer wood to expose the ring grain in relief, producing a tactile, craggy surface that is lighter in the hand than an equivalent smooth bowl. Dating a Big Ben presents the familiar challenge of most factory pipes: the house did not employ a datable code system on its stummels, so an individual example can only be placed within the production span of its named series rather than assigned to a specific year. The designation recorded here rests on the owner's statement of the model and its Dutch origin, and the pipe's history as an estate piece confirms a period of prior service. Accordingly, the honest bracket for this example is the production era of the Big Ben Select line, without a narrower year attribution.