Zettervic Pipes Virgin Bent Volcano Estate Pipe - Smooth Briar, Vulcanite Saddle Stem, 9mm Filter

The shank carries a stamp we cannot place in any cabinet: ZETTERVIC PIPES, and beneath it, VIRGIN. We print it exactly as it reads and add nothing to the name - no founding year, no country, no house history - because none is ours to state.

What the stamp does not tell us, the pipe itself does. This is a bent volcano, cut smooth, with a wide oval shank and a saddle-mounted vulcanite stem carrying a fishtail slot and a 9mm filter bore.

The volcano is one of the classic shape families: a bowl that flares wide at the rim and draws in sharply toward the shank, so the profile reads, in silhouette, like the cone it is named for. It is usually cut with a low center of gravity and a wide bowl mouth, giving the smoker a broad surface to pack and a shank that sits comfortably across the fingers rather than the fist. Volcanoes appear in both straight and bent versions across most classic shape charts; the bend on this example moves the stem downward from the shank so the bowl rides level while the bit meets the mouth at a shallower angle, a feature bent smokers reach for when a straight shape puts too much weight forward.

The wide oval shank here is worth a moment. An oval shank is cut, not turned - the briar is shaped so the shank's cross-section is an ellipse rather than a circle, meaning the shank must be worked by hand or on a copying jig rather than a simple lathe pass. It changes how the stem is fitted: the tenon and mortise still have to line up true, but the visible shoulder where stem meets shank has to be blended by eye along a curve rather than a straight round. A saddle stem, stepping down in diameter from the shank before tapering to the bit, is the more work-intensive of the two common stem profiles, the other being the taper stem that runs one unbroken line from shank to button.

The fishtail slot cut into the bit opens the airway into a wide, flat channel rather than a single round hole, paired here with a 9mm filter chamber bored through shank and stem. A smoker who prefers an open, unfiltered draw removes the cartridge and smokes the pipe bore-only, since a fishtail bit is cut to work either way.

The measurements describe a pipe built for heat management as much as capacity. A chamber 20mm across and 45mm deep holds a slow-burning, sustained bowl of tobacco, while the 41mm exterior bowl width leaves measurable wall thickness between fire and hand - the mark of a shape cut for comfortable holding through a full smoke. At 63 grams it sits in a moderate weight range for its size, more substantial than a thin-walled bowl but well short of a solid bulldog block.

THE MARKS
- Stamped ZETTERVIC PIPES
- Stamped VIRGIN

Finish and grain: the briar is finished smooth and carries a stain; beyond that, see the photographs for grain and exact color.

Condition: pre-smoked, graded good. The stain shows faint scratches across the briar. The vulcanite stem carries a bite mark. No cracks, fills, or repairs reported.

THE MEASUREMENTS
Length 153mm (6.0") - bowl height 51mm (2.0") - bowl width 41mm (1.6") - chamber diameter 20mm (0.8") - chamber depth 45mm (1.8") - weight 63g (2.2 oz)

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

SKU: 067