Denicotea Deluxe Krocket 791 Smooth Long Straight Pot Estate Pipe - Vulcanite Fishtail Stem, 9mm Filter

Stamped Denicotea Deluxe Krocket 791 - the Krocket name was, in its day, one of the better-known pipe lines carrying the Denicotea mark across Europe.

This is a smooth-finished long straight pot, 175mm overall, with the full stamp cut into the shank: DENICOTEA DELUXE KROCKET 791. Denicotea is the company, Deluxe the grade word, Krocket the model line, and 791 the number stamped alongside it. The pipe is fitted with a tapered vulcanite stem ending in a fishtail bit, bored for a 9mm filter.

Denicotea was founded in 1932 by Willy Heineberg in Cologne, making silica-gel filters, filter inserts, cigarette holders, and pipes. After the Second World War the company's headquarters moved to Bergisch Gladbach, where the business carried on under the same name. Denicotea is, properly speaking, the name of the filter itself - the silica-gel insert sold through holders and pipes alike - and the firm built its identity around that one product, a duality it still carries today, the brand now operated together with Composing-Studio GmbH. Advertising placed in Estonia as early as 1938 shows the company was already selling outside Germany before the war, distribution that lines up with what the seller found stamped on this pipe: a Krocket sold widely, and known, well past one country's borders.

Vulcanite - hard rubber, vulcanized for durability - was the standard stem material across most of the twentieth century, prized for taking a fine taper and a clean polish and for wearing at the bit without splintering, though it will dull to brown or green over years of light exposure if left unprotected. A 9mm filter bore is cut to take the paper or charcoal cartridges Denicotea itself became known for making - filters were the company's founding product, after all - so this pipe can be run filtered, or, with an adapter, without.

THE MARKS
- Shank stamp: DENICOTEA DELUXE KROCKET 791 - company name, grade word, model name, and model number, all stamped together on the shank.

The shape is a long straight pot: a shorter, wider relative of the billiard, with a bowl that sits taller and blunter than a standard billiard chamber and a flat rim that reads as a clean line when the pipe is set down. At 42mm of bowl height against 41mm of bowl width the proportions run close to square, which is the pot shape's signature, and a 37mm chamber depth against a 20mm bore puts real mass in the briar at the heel. The shank runs straight off the bowl into the tapered vulcanite stem, ending in a fishtail bit - the slot opens into two flat tines rather than a single round aperture, spreading the draw across a wider surface at the lip, generally read as a gentler bite than a narrow round slot gives. A tapered stem like this is meant to be gripped near the bit rather than clenched at the shank, and the straight underside lets the pipe sit level in a rack or on a table.

The finish is smooth briar with a stain. Grain pattern is best judged from the photographs.

Condition: pre-owned, graded good by the seller. Faint scratches are present across the briar. Tiny bite marks are present on the vulcanite mouthpiece near the bit.

THE MEASUREMENTS
Length 175mm (7.0in) - Bowl height 42mm (1.65in) - Bowl width 41mm (1.6in) - Chamber diameter 20mm (0.8in) - Chamber depth 37mm (1.5in) - Weight 47g (1.7oz)

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

SKU: 025