After the Kai Nielsen rabbit hole, let me take you on another, even deeper one…

Charles Fairmorn was a tobacco company in Germany, and over the years they commissioned pipes from a number of Danish and English pipe makers.

Even though most of their pipes look and feel amazing, you can see quite a stark difference between the more regular production pieces — often associated with Bari and usually seen in that plum-style stain — and the commissioned high grades.

Those high grades are a completely different animal. You start seeing gold or silver bands, hand-cut stems and absolutely incredible grain…

Now for the one-million-dollar question: who actually made those high grades?

I have been digging into this for months, and even though I have managed to find some information, I still don’t have the full picture or a reliable way to distinguish between all of the different makers.

For the high-grade pipes handmade in Denmark, I know of at least three makers who produced pipes for Fairmorn: Tao, Former and Age Bogelund. There may well have been more, but the information I found on those was too anecdotal for me to confidently include here.

The question that really drives me crazy is who made the English high grades…

I have heard Ashton mentioned as a possibility, but I have never found anything solid enough to treat that as fact.

If you have any proper information on the subject, PLEASE let me know. This is exactly the kind of rabbit hole I would love to finally get to the bottom of.

As for this pipe itself, it has everything you would want from one of those mysterious Fairmorn high grades — stunning straight grain, a 14K gold band and a beautifully made hand-cut Cumberland stem.

The pipes go through one final check before shipping, so if you notice any inconsistencies in the carnauba finish or smudges they will be taken care of before your pipe is shipped to you.