Vauen ITO 1 Design Straight Apple Briar Estate Pipe Painted Black and White Bowl

VAUEN over ITO DESIGN, with a small 1 at the end of the line, stamped into the black lower part of the shank. This is a Vauen ITO 1 from Vauen's Design Pipes collection: a smooth straight apple in briar, its large bowl painted black and white, with a small white dot set into the top of the stem.

The design is the point of this pipe. The upper bowl and the rim are white, the lower bowl and the shank are black, and the line where the two colours meet runs at a slant across the bowl. The paint is glossy on both colours.

In 1848 Karl Ellenberger and Carl August Ziener opened a pipe factory in Nuremberg, recorded as the first in Germany. Gebhard Ott founded his own works in 1866, and in 1901 the two houses joined as Vereinigte Pfeifenfabriken Nurnberg, run by Ernst Eckert of the Ott family. In 1909 Adolf Eckert made a word out of the initials, the V of Vereinigte and the N of Nurnberg: VAUEN, registered as a trademark that September.

In 1921 the firm brought out a paper filter, and in 1934 the Dr. Perl junior, a 9mm activated-carbon filter that was the first of its kind. In the 1920s Vauen also took up a white dot as its trademark; after a court case with Dunhill, the white dot stayed on pipes for Germany and Austria, while pipes for other markets carry a light-blue or grey dot. The firm never left Nuremberg and has stayed in family hands; Alexander Eckert, the fifth generation, has led it since 1982.

THE MARKS

- VAUEN / ITO DESIGN 1 stamped on the shank (the 1 is light)
- A white dot on the top of the stem

In Vauen's own system a dot on the mouthpiece marks the higher grades; the plain VAUEN imprint alone marks the lower ones. The white dot is the colour Vauen keeps for Germany and Austria.

An apple bowl is round, its sides curving evenly from the rim down to the heel, so the bowl sits round in the palm like the fruit it is named after. Vauen's own description of the ITO 1 speaks of a thick-walled, heavily rounded briar bowl. Here it sits on a short straight shank, and the glossy black stem tapers from the shank toward the bit; please see the photographs for the bit and the stem.

The finish is smooth, but this is not a pipe about grain. The paint covers the briar, so the look of the pipe comes from the split of black and white rather than from stain or grain. No mark on this pipe gives a year, so no date is claimed here.

Condition: pre-smoked, in very good to excellent condition. Please see the photographs.

THE MEASUREMENTS

- Length: 165 mm (6.50 in)
- Bowl height: 47 mm (1.85 in)
- Bowl width: 50 mm (1.97 in)
- Chamber diameter: 20 mm (0.79 in)
- Chamber depth: 40 mm (1.57 in)
- Weight: 71 g (2.50 oz)

Ships from the Faridunhill archive. Worldwide shipping and professional sanitation on every estate pipe. SKU: 414