DESCRIPTION
Diving Helmet Smokers’ pipes
Siebe, Gorman estate-style (bent) smokers’ briar pipes are of particular interest, and their manufacture would have heen outsourced to one of the many pipe makers of the time, These smokers’ pipes measure approximately 5,5 inches (140 mm) in length. with a bowl height of 1,75 inches (45mm).
They were quality made, with each bowl relief carved in the shape or a stylized divers’ helmet. As they vary slightly in their execution, the outcome of the windows differ slightly in their positioning. A plain bent black or light brown vulcanite stem is used without a metal shank collar and each pipe is normally stamp marked on one side of the shank with the company name, using plain letter-ing which many or may not be gilded in gold.
Earlier pipes have longer inscriptions a which reads SIEBE GORMAN & Co Ltd. LONDON written on either two or thee lines, Other, more recent inscriptions include SIEBE GORMAN and Siebe Gorman LONDON MADE. However some pipes have been observed without any inscription.
Divers’ pipes included for sale in the Siebe-Heinke 1963 catalogue The Blue Book of Underwater Swimming ( page 19 : ref 29/1644) and also in some later trade pamphlets(eg Siebe Gorman2 Seacrown’ Diving Equipment Catalogue 1969, page 15 , Ref 00314600 Divers’ briar pipe). A rare pipe example with a silver shnk collar and a hallmark that dates it to 1011, indicates that smokers’ pipes were produced by the company time.
There are some others slightly exists. Different looking designs of helmet-shaped briar pipes that were manufactured in France and these may be inscribed MADE IN FRANCE across the underside of the shank collar. As the wording is in English they may have been made for the British market. The French Bathus company also made a green blazed (white bowl interior) ceramic novelty pipe with a bent stem of which there are two slightly different versions. One pipe has a more ornate collar and is relief marked on the side with the company letter ‘B’. The company no longer exists.
