Jeantet 1020 French Chimney Sandblasted Slightly Bent Estate Pipe, Fishtail Bit

JEANTET and the number 1020, stamped in plain capitals under the shank of a tall, narrow sandblasted bowl. This is a Jeantet French chimney: 2.2 inches tall and 1.1 inches wide at the bowl, so the chimney balance shows at a glance.

It is pre-smoked and in good condition for its age, with bite marks on the mouthpiece and darkness on the rim. The pipe has a slight bend and runs on a vulcanite tapered stem to a fishtail mouthpiece, with no filter. A white J inside an outlined frame sits on the side of the stem. Both stamp lines are legible, the first letters of JEANTET a little worn.

The Jeantet name in Saint-Claude goes back to 1775, the first time the family firm appears in the records. By 1807 it was a turnery, making wooden shanks for porcelain pipes and pipes of wild cherry wood, and in 1816 it took the name Jeantet-David. Briar came in 1858. By 1890 the firm employed 51 people, and about 1891 work began, over several years, on an integrated factory at Rue de Bonneville 12-14. In 1898 Maurice Jeantet restructured the business and bought the Genoud workshop next door.

The company became a limited company in 1938, with a branch workshop at Montreal-la-Cluse that finished mainly the cheaper pipes. Output peaked around 1969 at 30,000 to 35,000 dozen pipes a year with 72 workers, then fell to 6,000 or 7,000 dozen in 1987, with 22 workers. Yves Grenard, once Jeantet's chief designer, took over Chapuis-Comoy in 1971. Jeantet then joined the Cuty Fort group headed by Chacom in 1988 (pipephil gives 1992); Chacom closed the Jeantet plant, and the City of Saint-Claude bought it in 1989. In 2010 the brand left the group and the label went back to the Jeantet family; pipe production is discontinued.

THE MARKS

- JEANTET, in plain capitals, under the shank
- 1020 under the name
- A white J inside an outlined frame on the stem

A chimney bowl is tall and narrow, with straight walls. This one stands 55 mm high on a bowl 29 mm across, and its chamber is 17 mm wide and 50 mm deep. The meaning of the number 1020 is not known. The tenon carries a long metal tube, shown with the stem off the shank.

The sandblast covers the whole bowl and the shank, with deep craggy ridges.

The stamp is in plain capitals, not the florid J that pipephil lists as an early Jeantet stamp. No source gives years for the plain stamp, so the stamps do not fix a year.

Condition: pre-smoked; please see the photographs for the rim and the mouthpiece.

THE MEASUREMENTS

- Length: 150 mm (6.0 in)
- Bowl height: 55 mm (2.2 in)
- Bowl width: 29 mm (1.1 in)
- Chamber diameter: 17 mm (0.7 in)
- Chamber depth: 50 mm (2.0 in)
- Weight: 1.1 oz

Ships from the Faridunhill archive. Worldwide shipping and professional sanitation on every estate pipe. SKU: 054