Loading
Loading
Brand Dating Guides
Wilke was a New York pipe shop. Its name dates the shop era, not the carver.
Updated 2026-10-23
Welcome. This guide helps you place a pipe, box or ad that says WILKE.
Wilke pipes carry no year stamp. We know of no shape number list.
The best clue is often on the box or in an ad, not on the pipe.
Each rule below has a rank: high, medium or low.
1872
Edwin Wilke founded Wilke Tobacco in New York City in 1872.
He had no sons. He taught his daughters, Anna and Louisa, to make pipes and blend tobacco.
Pipedia tells this story from a 1937 New York World-Telegram article.
When he died in 1930, the two sisters ran the shop.
A 1950 Sarasota Herald-Tribune article called them the only women pipe makers in the United States.
Their customers included Herbert Hoover, Lord Halifax and John Steinbeck.
The sisters also repaired pipes. They did not smoke pipes themselves.
Wilke was proud of its unpainted pipes.
The shop promised Macedonian briar only, with no paint, varnish, plug or putty.
Our own period ads repeat these words and say Established 1872.
The ads also offer pipes made to order from your own design.
The 1950 Sarasota Herald-Tribune article gave a top price of 100 dollars.
A 1970 New York Magazine piece gave a top price of 500 dollars.
1943
For decades the shop stood at 400 Madison Avenue, at 48th Street.
Boxes and ads give the address as New York 17, N.Y.
The 17 is a postal zone number.
Wikipedia says the Post Office brought in zones for 124 large cities in May 1943.
The same page says ZIP codes came in on 1 July 1963.
So a box or ad with New York 17 dates to 1943–1963.
Our four saved Wilke ads all carry this address.
Wilke was a shop name. Many of its pipes were made by others.
Pipedia says nearly all pipes for Wilke came from Weber, in Jersey City, unstained.
Models like the Wilke Danish Bent show the Weber origin clearly.
Pipedia says Wilke opened a second shop inside Wanamaker's in Philadelphia in the 1970s.
The Wilke pipes sold there were made by Steven Johnson.
We do not know how to tell the sisters' own pipes from bought-in stock.
1983
Pipedia says pipe maker Elliott Nachwalter and his wife Carole Burns bought the brand in 1983.
They kept the Madison Avenue shop until the early 1990s.
Then they moved to Vermont and started a mail order firm called Pipeworks & Wilke.
Pipedia says Carole Burns blended Wilke tobacco in Montpelier until July 2017.
Pipedia names John Brandt as the man who now continues the blends.
On the pipe, look for the name WILKE with a model name.
Model names such as Squatty Bulldog or Prince of Wales are shapes, not dated lines.
On a box or ad, read the address. New York 17 means 1943–1963.
The words Pipeworks & Wilke point to the Vermont mail order years.
Our ads ask buyers to send for catalog N. Each catalog letter may mark an era.
We have not found a list of these catalog letters yet.
Established 1872 is the age of the shop, not the age of your pipe.
A Wilke stamp does not mean the sisters carved the pipe.
The postal zone dates the box or ad. A pipe may have moved to another box.
Wilke Barclay Mixture and Blend No. 72 are tobaccos, not pipe models.
Each row comes from our Wilke cabinet. No Wilke mark gives one year.
New York 17, N.Y. on box or ad
Postal zones began in 1943. ZIP codes replaced them in 1963.
Pipeworks & Wilke
Pipedia says only the early 1990s. We use 1991 as a working start; it is not a sourced year.
WILKE name alone
The name covers the whole life of the shop. It dates the shop, not the maker.
What We Don't Know Yet
Published deliberately. If you hold the catalogue, hallmarked example, or period document that closes one of these gaps, write to us — corrections are credited. Every open question across the encyclopedia is gathered on the Open Questions page.
Changelog
Sources
Holding a Wilkeyou can't place? Our shelves usually hold a few — documented to this same standard.
Wilke in the Shop