Butz-Choquin Regate Straight Smooth Apple 1156

This reference example is a straight apple from Butz-Choquin's Regate line, finished smooth and carrying the shape number 1156. The apple is one of the classic rounded-bowl forms of the pipe-making canon: a squat, gently spherical bowl, fuller through the middle than a billiard and softer in profile, paired here with a straight shank and stem in the traditional configuration. The smooth finish leaves the surface of the stummel uninterrupted, presenting the material plainly rather than through rustication or sandblasting. Butz-Choquin is among the most storied names in French pipe making. The firm later became rooted in Saint-Claude, the Jura town long regarded as the historic capital of the pipe industry, and in the twentieth century it passed under the ownership of the Berrod-Regad group, which continued production at scale. Butz-Choquin has been notable for organising its output into named lines — Regate among them — each denoting a particular finish and trim treatment applied across the factory's range of classic shapes, with a four-digit number identifying the shape itself. Dating a Butz-Choquin presents the usual difficulty of the large Saint-Claude houses: the factory did not stamp its pipes with a date code, and named lines were often produced across long spans of years. An example such as this is therefore placed by its line name and shape number within the brand's catalogue rather than pinned to a specific year. The record accordingly registers the piece as a French estate pipe of undetermined era within Butz-Choquin's production, its identity resting on the owner's attribution of brand, line, and shape number 1156.