Photographed and written by
John M. Young
The iconic bulldog shape, one of my favorites. With its upright bowl, tapered rim and diamond shank what is not to like. Add a slight forward cant and a saddle stem and you have a classic. The beading around the thickest part of the rim is optional but I think it adds something to the overall coolness of the pipe. This old Hand Crafted bulldog is no exception to that description.
This bulldog was stamped HAND CRAFTED on the top left shank, with CENTURY OLD over IMPORTED BRIAR on the top right. There was also a stamp ITALY on the bottom left shank. I missed this one during the initial inspection and during the photo shoot. The stem had a circle logo with a white or cream colored paint. Below are some photos from the initial photo session prior to working on the pipe.
Used but not abused came to my mind. The stem was oxidized and showed signs of clenching, tooth chatter. The airway was dirty as indicated by the condition of the stinger. The bowl was not too heavily caked which indicated that the previous steward knew something about meerschaums and not allowing a cake to develop. Overall, this looked like a pretty straightforward restoration.
Background
My description above, though awesome, is not as good or complete as the following from G.L. Pease:
“The Bulldog and its Variants
Bulldog & Bent Bulldog
The Bulldogs have a very distinctive shape. The bowl has a cross section almost like a pair of cones, placed base to base, with the upper cone truncated. The shank is diamond shaped, sometimes with the bottom flattened. The stem can either be tapered or saddled. The Bent Bulldog typically has a squatter bowl, and the shank is angled appropriately for a 1/4 bent stem.
Above are a Dunhill Root 47 bulldog, Shell O squat bulldog, Shell P (to my eye, ThE classic bent bulldog) and a saddle bit bulldog, shape 48, in Root finish.
Three more Bulldogs, all GBDs, just ’cause. The top one is a Squat Bulldog from 1948, the center one, a beautiful GBD XTRA from 1919, the bottom one is from 1929. The center pipe is one of the most beautifully cut Bulldogs I’ve ever seen, though its rounded edges deviate slightly from the “classic” versions. But, what can be more classic than a pipe from 1919? Yep. I love Bulldogs!
Bulldog Variants
Not all Bulldogs can be categorized as straight, or accurately placed in the Bent Bulldog class. Dunhill, among others, produce Bulldogs, both tall and squat, with 1/8 bent stems.
Above are pictured a Dunhill Bruyere 146, a very rarely seen shape, and a Shell PO, 1/8 bent squat bulldog.
Rhodesian, Bull Moose & Bullcap
To my mind, the Rhodesian has a round shank. There are apparently two schools of thought on this issue, and some feel that any bent bulldog is a Rhodesian. I prefer to classify the round shanked versions and those with a diamond shank seperately, and there seems to be some precident to support this umong some of the older, more traditional manufactureres. The chubby, voluptuous, round shanked versions are often incorrectly referred to as the Bull Moose, though most experts feel that the true Bull Moose sports a “jutting” chin. Call them what you will, these are beautiful shapes, and perhaps the shapes that generate more passion in the collecting of them and the discussion of them than any other!
Above are an Ashton Old Church Rhodesian, a Comoy Extraordinaire Rhodesian, a 1950 GBD Saddle Rhodesian, and a Comoy Tradition Straight Rhodesian. (Some would call this a Bullcap, though I think it’s a little too thick and not long enough for the appelation.)” (https://www.glpease.com/Pipes/Shapes/Bulldogs.php)
This Hand Crafted Century Old Bulldog with a meerschaum bowl lining has a slightly less noble heritage than the Dunhill or GBD pipes discussed above. It still remains a fine example of the shape. When searching for the maker I began with pipephil.eu. “Century Old” returned the following hits:
Number 1) The first example is T.V. and is actually made by Lorenzo .
Number 2) This one is automatically out of the race. The stamp on the shank clearly reads ITALY. I’m not sure how this counts as American as it is obviously Italian made.
Number 3) Hmm, another Lorenzo.
Number 4) Lorenzo again.
According to pipedia.org, Lorenzo is far from a recent pipe manufacturer. Their history goes back to 1900. I will shorten up the article to when the company became “Lorenzo”. I will also include the link for those who are interested in more of this interesting story. “Shortly before 1950 Lorenzo Tagliabue became in charge of the company’s management. He had closely studied the first successful steps of the newly established Italian brands like Castello and Brebbia and began to design new models of his own in an unmistakable style. Simultaneously the previous segment of the cheap, cheaper, cheapest bulk pipes was left and pipes reflecting to more elevated standards were produced.
From 1969 on Lorenzo Tagliabue changed the brand’s name to Lorenzo Pipes. The reason currently quoted is another pipemaking firm named Tagliabue.
The newly issued Lorenzos mostly showed extremely strong forms in designs appealing greatly and massively. Thick, “beefy” walls of the bowls and broad and strong stems were significant for them. As contemporary ads said, these pipes were “Made for real men with strong hands”. Many had a flattened bottom to sit on the table. Next to the unusual shapes, the patina effect of the silk mat surface combined with a bold red or a bright orange staining gave the pipes their distinctive look. The most successful model was a big Oom Paul that was executed in numerous variations.
Lorenzo Pipes became cult troughout the 1970s and 1980s. In order to strive another cliche than the gentleman with the stronger statue: the pipesmoking university student of these years, clothed in turtleneck pullover and NATO-parka, can actually not be conceived without a Lorenzo! Well, to be sure he had to select his Lorenzo very carefully from the show-cases in order to find one with less than six blinking fills. Lorenzo dealt very generously with putty. All the same, the pipes smoked very good-natured, they were considered to be hypermodern and flamboyant and, perhaps best of all, they gave you the indispensable highbrow touch!
A somewhat more bargain series was given an own brand name: Spitfire. Spitfires displayed 1:1 transferred Lorenzo models (mainly for 9mm filter) as well as smaller, more classically shaped pipes. These were also extremely popular. Lloyd’s was strictly a Lorenzo second.
In 1983 Lorenzo Tagliabue came to bitter grief: his little daughter, the only child, died of cancer. He lost all interest in the business and retired still in 1983, leaving no heirs who wished to continue the business. Lorenzo Pipes was licensed for and continued for a shorter period by Comoy’s of London (Cadogan / Oppenheimer Group). Then Lorenzo Pipes almost disappeared and Lorenzo Tagliabue passed away in 1987.
But this wasn’t the end. In 1988 Riccardo Aliverti and his wife Gabriella purchased all rights to the Lorenzo trademark from the Tagliabue family and production of the renown Lorenzo Pipes resumed.
The Aliverti family is involved in pipemaking since Romolo Aliverti, the father of the current owners, joined the Lana Brothers in 1920. He later reached the rank of technical director. No wonder that his son Riccardo showed an interest in pipe making. Riccardo began learning the pipemaking trade in 1954 at the age of fourteen under his father’s watchful eyes and succeeded him as technical director upon his father’s retirement in 1973.
Today the third generation of the Aliverti family is working for the company. Massimo Aliverti, Riccardo’s son, has been with the company as sales director since 1991. He works closely with his father and knows all phases of production. Massimo has established a broad customer base for Lorenzo around the world.
As far as the informations are reliable, Lorenzo’s better lines (One Star, Two Star, Three Star, Moscato, Spumante and the Grand Canadian) are made in Italy while the cheaper ones (New Era – Riesling, New Era – Poggio, Angera, Angera Satinato, Cadry, Churchwarden, Filtro, Arena, Cadore, Sport PS and Garden) are made in Albania by Tomori to benefit from the rich deposit of briar in Albania.
The website of Lorenzo’s American distributor SMS Pipes gives a good impression of today’s Lorenzo Pipes. SMS also offers a wide range of Meers.” (Lorenzo – Pipedia) (Italics are mine)
Following the SMS Pipes lead, I found a “vintage” (year unknown) bulldog. In comparing the dimensions many are within a couple of millimeters of the pipe in hand.
I think this pipe is a Lorenzo product based on the CENTURY OLD stamping. As to the year of production, I cannot say much. The company gained the Lorenzo name in 1969 and continues today.
The Restoration
The Bulldog received a clean denim patch at the workbench.
The reaming gear was gathered. Since the bowl liner was meerschaum, I did not use a normal reaming tool. I feared that this would place too much torque on the meerschaum and risk cracking the mineral. Scrapers and sandpaper were used instead. The cake was light and easily removed.
The stinger was removed from the stem with a painters tape wrapped pliers.
This aluminum stinger was placed in a medicine cup and submerged in 95% ethyl alcohol.
While the ethyl worked on softening the tarlac (my personal term for the shellac-like coating of old tar and smoking residue), I used several bristle pipe cleaners dipped in the ethyl alcohol to clean the airway of the stem.
I refer to this as “deox”. A play on words similar to “detox” as with the detoxification of alcoholics or drug users.
The stummel was then scrubbed with undiluted Murphy Oil Soap and a medium toothbrush. The soap was rinsed with warm water and the stummel dried with a cotton hand towel. Back at the workbench a few spots of finish could still be seen on the stummel and appeared as shiny darker spots.
The stummel was wiped with a make-up pad soaked in 95% ethyl alcohol. The remaining finish can be seen on the make-up pad.
The removal of the grime and finish revealed a couple of pits and the damage to the beading which would need to be filled using cyanoacrylate (CA, super glue) and briar dust.
Below you can see an image of the damage below the beading at the back of the stummel.
More damage could be seen at the front of the stummel.
To address this damage and pits, I used a fly tying bodkin to apply a thin bead/small drops of brown CA to the areas.
While the CA was wet, I scooped a small amount of briar dust with a dental scraper and placed this onto the wet CA. I used the back of the dental scraper to press the briar dust into the wet CA. The dust combined with the CA and cured almost immediately. The subsequent fill is a hard scab-like surface which needed to be filed with a flat needle file then sanded. In the photo below, a piece of folded 320 grit sandpaper can be seen. This was used to smooth the groove of the beading.
The process was repeated to completely fill the depressions of the damage.
In the photo below you can see the finished repair which needs a little bit more sanding to smooth the new fill.
WIth the damage repaired, I taped the stamps. I wanted to dye the stummel with a black dye. This would conceal the repairs as well as give the grain greater contrast. The black dye would then be sanded from the stummel leaving the softer grained briar with a darker color than the harder grained wood. I did not want to sand the stamps and reduce their legibility so they were taped over to keep the dye from the stamps.
Black Fiebing’s Leather Dye was used to dye the stummel. This was applied with a folded pipe cleaner. A fishing bobber wrapped in duct tape was used to plug the tobacco chamber and to give me a handle to hold the stummel. Most non-alcoholics use a wine bottle cork rather than a fishing bobber. You do you, as the saying goes.
After the dye was applied the wet stummel was then flamed with the disposable lighter to burn off the alcohol solvent from the dye.
I then used 91% isopropyl alcohol to rinse excess dye into the sink.
The stummel was then wiped with paper towels
Back at the workbench I used make-up pads dipped in 95% ethyl alcohol to wipe the stummel, removing more of the black dye. Notice the black dye did reach under the tape meant to protect the stamps but the stamped area is much lighter that the surrounding briar.
The stummel was then sanded with a 400 grit sanding sponge to remove the surface black dyed briar and wiped with additional alcohol dipped make-up pads to remove briar dust from sanding. The underlying briar was successfully contrast dyed. The stummel was allowed to dry completely while I returned attention to the stem.
The stem was removed from the Before and After Extra Strength Deoxidizer and placed into the Super Technical Utilitarian Pressure Indifferent Drip-dry-omatic (STUPID), patent pending, and allowed to drip off excess solution.
After a few minutes suspended on the STUPID, the stem was wiped using a coarse shop rag to remove any remaining solution and rub away some of the oxidized rubber from the stem. Two bristle pipe cleaners were run through the airway to remove the solution that remained within the pipe.
Back at the workbench I started scrubbing the stem with SoftScrub on make-up pads.
And more makeup-up pads with SoftScrub. The stem was returned to the sink where I used a wetted magic eraser and more SoftScrub. Immediately after rinsing with water and drying the stem was oiled with mineral oil and allowed to sit for 15 minutes.
The mineral oil was wiped from the stem and hand buffed with a soft cotton cloth. The stem was again wiped with an alcohol wetted make-up pad in preparation for taping the stamps. Sanding was the next process and I did not want to degrade any of the stamps during the sanding.
The pipe, stem and stummel, were sanded using a sequence of sanding sponges from 400-3500 grit. Between sponges I wiped the stem with a make-up pad wetted with 95% ethyl alcohol. The stem was rubbed with mineral oil applied by my fingertip and wiped with a paper towel. After the 1000 sponge I had to reapply some of the tape.
The sanding continued through the 3500 sponge with wipeings as described above. After the 2500 sponge the tapes were removed.
The pipe was then polished with micro-mesh pads from 4000-12000 grit. The wiping of the stummel was the same as with the sponges. The stem now was rubbed with Obsidian Oil and wiped with a paper towel.
The logo was cleaned with a cotton swab and alcohol and the logo was repainted with white acrylic model paint. Before the paint was completely dry it was scraped from the flat surfaces with a plastic card. Once dry, the excess paint was buff off with the 12000 micro-mesh pad. Sorry that I neglected to photograph this process.
The stummel was then given a coating of Before and After Restoration Balm and allowed to sit for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes the Restoration Balm was wiped off using an inside out athletic sock. zThe pipe was then taken to the buffer where I applied several coats of carnauba wax to both stem and stummel. A microfiber polishing cloth was then used to hand buff to a very nice shine.
This Hand Crafted Century Old bulldog turned out very nicely. I have nothing bad to say about meerschaum lined pipes. I actually have several that I use as outdoor pipes for windy days. I have never had a burnout but I can certainly see how windy conditions would cause them. This is by far the prettiest of any meerschaum lined pipe I have worked on. I am sure this will make a wonderful smoking pipe for someone, windy day or not. e contrast dye did a fine job of accentuating the briar gran and concealing the repairs around the beading. The stem oxidation was difficult to remove without altering the nice sharp edges of the diamond stem. The dimensions of this beauty are:
Length: 5.50 in./ 139.70 mm.
Weight: 1.31 oz./ 37.20 g.
Bowl Height: 1.73 in./ 43.94 mm.
Chamber Depth: 1.32 in./ 33.53 mm.
Chamber Diameter: 0.71 in./ 18.03 mm.
Outside Diameter: 1.49 in./ 37.85 mm.
I do hope that you have found something here useful to your own pipe care, maintenance or restorations. If you like this sort of thing, please click the like and subscribe buttons. Thank you for reading the ramblings of an old pipe lover.
Below are some photos of the finished Hand Crafted Century Old Meerschaum Lined Bulldog.
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