FORD 730 Straight Smooth Chimney, era undetermined

This reference example is a straight, smooth-finished tobacco pipe in the chimney shape, carrying the brand name FORD together with the shape number 730. It arrived in the archive as part of a miscellaneous estate acquisition, and its identification rests on the owner's report of the stamped nomenclature. The chimney is one of the more visually distinctive entries in the classical shape chart. Its defining trait is an exceptionally tall, narrow, cylindrical bowl — proportionally higher than it is wide — set on a straight shank in line with the stem. The elongated tobacco chamber that results from this geometry is prized by devotees of flake and Virginia tobaccos, who value the way a deep, columnar chamber concentrates the burn and extends the smoke. The smooth finish on this example leaves the surface of the stummel fully exposed rather than obscured beneath rustication or sandblasting, presenting the material in its plainest, most legible state. The FORD stamp identifies the brand, and the three-digit numeral 730 functions in the customary manner of a factory shape number, tying the individual pipe to a catalogued pattern within the maker's range. Shape numbers of this kind were the standard organisational tool of production pipe houses through the twentieth century, allowing retailers and smokers to reorder a specific silhouette by number alone. FORD is not among the brands documented with a systematic factory date-coding practice, and the stamping here conveys identity and shape rather than a year of manufacture.