Morris Real Briar oom paul smooth billiard

The shank carries a single stamp: MORRIS REAL BRIAR. No model name, no grade line, no shape number follows it - the maker states the wood and nothing more.

This is an Oom Paul: a full bent, smooth-finished billiard with a tall upright bowl, a vulcanite saddle stem, and a P-lip bit. The seller reports it pre-smoked and in very good vintage condition, with faint scratching across the briar and a crack in the metal of the band at the shank.

The Oom Paul shape has a documented lineage worth setting out properly, since the name itself is a piece of pipe history rather than a manufacturer's invention. It is taken from Paul Kruger, the Boer statesman photographed for decades holding a pipe of exactly this profile: a bowl that leans hard toward the smoker, meeting a short shank at close to a right angle, with a stem that drops away just as sharply to complete the curve. The bend is structural rather than decorative. It lets a tall chamber sit close to the jaw without the bowl swinging out in front of the face the way an upright billiard's would, and it keeps the weight of the bowl balanced back over the hand rather than out at the end of a long shank.

A saddle-cut stem - stepped down from the shank's diameter rather than tapering smoothly into it - is the conventional fitting for the shape. The P-lip bit fitted here - a rounded, button-less end with the airhole set into the top face of the button rather than at the tip - directs the draw of smoke up across the roof of the mouth rather than straight back along the tongue, a different sensation at the same draw resistance as a standard fishtail or button bit.

At 53mm of bowl height against a 42mm chamber width, the proportions run tall and narrow rather than wide and shallow.

Finish and grain: the briar is finished smooth and stained; see the photographs for color and grain detail.

THE MARKS
- MORRIS REAL BRIAR, stamped on the shank

Condition: Pre-smoked, graded by the seller as very good vintage condition. Faint scratches are present across the briar. The metal band at the shank has a crack in the metal. No other condition issues were reported.

THE MEASUREMENTS
Length 135mm (5.4") - bowl height 53mm (2.1") - bowl width 42mm (1.7") - bowl depth 45mm (1.8") - chamber diameter 20mm (0.8") - weight 2.1 oz - 9mm filter

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

SKU: 078