Corsica Bent Apple Smooth Briar Estate Pipe, Vulcanite P-Lip Saddle Stem, 9mm Filter

This shank carries a single word: Corsica. No other stamp accompanies it - no shape number, no country of origin, no grade mark. Just the name, cut into the briar and nothing more.

The pipe itself is a bent apple in smooth briar, fitted with a vulcanite saddle stem and a P-lip mouthpiece, bored for a 9mm filter. It has been smoked before and is graded in good condition, with faint scratches across the stained surface of the bowl.

Bowl: briar
Stem: vulcanite
Mouthpiece: P-lip
Filter: 9mm
Stamped: "Corsica"

No maker history is named on this pipe beyond the single word stamped into the shank, and none is claimed here. What can be said with certainty concerns the shape and the fittings, and that is worth saying properly.

The apple is one of the oldest bowl profiles in the briar tradition - a rounded bowl with a shorter, fuller belly than a billiard, the diameter carried further down toward the heel before it tapers into the shank. Bent, the shank and stem curve downward from the bowl rather than running straight, which changes how the pipe sits in the hand and in the mouth: the bowl hangs lower and the bit meets the jaw at a shallower angle, a format many smokers find rests more comfortably through a long bowl. A saddle stem is cut so that the section nearest the bit steps up in height from the shank line, rather than tapering smoothly into it - a shape chosen as much for the hand as for the eye, since the step gives the fingers a place to find the stem in the dark. The P-lip mouthpiece directs smoke upward through a raised, rounded aperture on the top of the bit rather than at the tip, keeping the tongue away from the direct draw and changing where the smoke lands in the mouth.

A 9mm filter bore accepts a paper or charcoal filter element sized to that diameter, seated in the shank ahead of the tobacco chamber. Its presence changes the draw and the moisture handling of the pipe; a smoker who prefers an unfiltered draw can generally fit an adapter or run the pipe without one, but the bore itself is fixed once drilled.

The chamber measures 20mm across and 44mm deep, a tall, narrow profile relative to its width. A chamber built this way holds a smaller charge of tobacco than a wide, shallow bowl of similar overall size, and it tends to burn from the bottom up in a fairly even column - a shape favored where a slower, cooler smoke is wanted over a long sitting rather than a large single load.

THE MARKS
- "Corsica" stamped on the shank

Briar on a smooth-finished pipe is left unblasted and unrusticated; the surface is polished rather than textured, which is what lets grain and any fills show plainly rather than being masked by a rough surface. The note describes a stained finish with faint scratches across the briar. Grain pattern and color are best read from the photographs themselves; none is specified beyond the finish and the wear noted.

Condition: the pipe is described as pre-smoked and in good condition. Faint scratches are present across the stained briar surface. No crack, chip, or repair is noted in the seller's assessment.

THE MEASUREMENTS
Length 145mm (5.7in) - bowl height 50mm (2.0in) - bowl width 42mm (1.7in) - chamber diameter 20mm (0.8in) - chamber depth 44mm (1.7in) - weight 51g (1.8oz)

A single stamped word, an apple bowl built on a bent shank, and fittings - saddle stem, P-lip, 9mm bore - chosen for how the pipe handles rather than how it looks on a shelf.

Ships from the Faridunhill / Pipe Collectors Encyclopedia archive. Worldwide shipping and professional sanitation on every estate pipe.

SKU: 139