Billie W. Taylor II, Ph.D.
Collection

Mick Ratliff, partner in Barclay's Pipes in Columbus, sent me a 1972 Advertisement from Paul's Pipe Shop in Flint, Michigan. I called Paul Spaniola, proprietor of the shop who, at the age of 86, is still running the store with his son and wife. Paul invited me to see his shop and pipe museum and, when I got a couple of days free, I drove up to visit with him. He still had a number of these pyrolytic graphite pipes in stock and had been marking them up over the years to keep up with inflation. His prices were high, but not outrageous for unsmoked brand new pipes, many in their original boxes, and I bought quite a few. This is one of them. By the way, the Paul's Pipe Museum is worth a trip to Flint. As part of his claimed million pipes in stock (I didn't count, but I don't doubt - he has a lot of pipes.), he has examples of just about every 20th century pipe maker and many unusual pipes. One item was of particular interest to me; a display board for THE SMOKE that showed all the shapes and colors in which it was offered.He also sold me a couple of what he called "stone pipes." They have a free-style exterior of some kind of rough finished material with a pyrolytic graphite bowl liner. He said he had no literature or recollection of what the exteriors might be made, but it is surprisingly light weight. An Advertisement I have shows these as part of a series called featherROCK.

I got an even better example of this color/shape with no discoloration of the paint, so this one is now for trade.Tammy Potterfield found this site and this pipe which reminded her one her dad lost when she was a toddler (the family story is that it was last seen in her hands as she wandered about the house). So now, many years later, she is replacing the lost pipe for her dad.