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brighamguy

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Hello All,
I'm new to the site and pipe smoking forums in general. I live in southern Ontario not far from Toronto.
I've been interested in pipes for some time having acquired my first pipe which was actually my fathers (a Medico Select Briar Varsity) and I've been hooked ever since. Such a neat niche hobby and pass time so very different from cigars or cigarettes.

I was wondering about information on Brigham Pipes (a Canadian Company) as I've come across 3 old Canadian ones at a local antique shop. I am planning on restoring them and just starting into this side of the hobby. These are old Brig's (prior to their move to Italy) and I'm now learning about pipe restoration. Can anyone lend me some info such as ages, names of the models (ie algonquin) etc?
I found a Brigham one dot  114 Canadian Pat Pending with serial # (old script), a 210 and a 314 both stamped "made in Canada". All in great shape and needing only slight restorations. I'll post some pics when I can
Thanks in advance
Paul
 
Welcome to the BoB, Paul. Glad to have you aboard. While I dont know much about Brigham pipes, I'd bet dollars to donuts someone on here does and will be able to help. Also, checking out older post can provided a ton of info on pipes and pipe related topics.
Looking forward to hearing more from you in the future. :afro:
 
Hi Paul!

Welcome! As for Brigham, most of what I know is that my best-smoking pipe is one :D I believe (and I'm sure someone will be along to correct me if I'm wrong) that the name (Acadian, Chinook, etc.) refers to the finish (color and texture) and then there is a number, the last part of which is the bowl style: -16 would be a bulldog, -26 would be a Rhodesian, etc. A 116 is a one dot bulldog, 316 a three dot, etc. with the dot referring to the quality of the actual briar (or at least how much they are going to charge for the pipe!)

"T"
 
Welcome to BoB Paul. Another member here and a fellow countryman of yours is ontariopiper who does refurbs and is really skilled at it. He may be a source of the info you seek as well.


Cheers,

RR
 
Welcome to the BoB, Brighamguy! Great to see another Canuck on the forum. I'm in Kitchener, ON and as Brewdude has already noted (Cheers, bro!), I'm fairly deep in the pipe refurb hobby, and a bit of a Brigham fanatic - I inherited 7 from my Dad and have added at least that many to the collection over the years.

Ironically, I just posted a bunch of Brigham flyers on my blog HERE. Check them out - all the lit is available for download in PDF format. There's also a link in that post to more Brig documents posted to the Reborn Pipes blog a few years ago.

I can tell you that Brigham has been making pipes since 1906 in Toronto up til the move to Italy in the late 1980's/early 1990's. Any Brig with an aluminum tenon/filter holder is a Made in Canada model; anything with a plastic tenon is of Italian production. Your Pat Pending # 114 is quite old - the patent for the Rock maple filter was issued to Roy Brigham in 1938 (after which the pipes carried the stamp "CAN PAT 37298" along with the Brigham script logo and model #), so if yours is stamped Pat Pending, it's a pre-1938 pipe. I'd love to see a pic!

The patent expired in 1955, after which Brigham stamped its pipes with the Brigham script logo, model # and "Made in Canada". Later still, the stamping was changed to "Brigham" over "Canada", again with the 3-digit model #. The "Canada" stamp was dropped when production moved to Italy.

As others have mentioned, the pins or "Dots" on the stem of Brigham pipes denoted the quality of the briar. A Brigham could carry anywhere from one to seven dots, though the 1, 2 & 3-dot models are much more common.

One of the best short summaries of Brigham pipe history I've been able to find online is THIS POST by Rusty on the Christian Pipe Smokers Forum. The BRIGHAM WEBSITE also has some (limited) info. As we're hitting Brigham's 110th anniversary in 2016, I'm hoping someone there might publish a detailed company history, but that's probably a pipe dream (pun intended). :D

Feel free to PM me if you'd like to chat more about your pipe finds. If you're interested, I'd love to meet up to compare collections.
 
I've just had a browse around the Brigham website - they've (finally) done an update, with more details available on both classic and modern Brigham pipes. :cheers:
 
Welcome to the Brotherhood from S.E. Michigan. By the way...I love your city of Toronto.
 
Hello BG and welcome to the BoB

One of my favorites is my Brigham 5 dot. I wish I had a few more just like it.

:cheers:

 
Actually I made a bit of a mistake. One of my estate pipes is marked "Can Pat" 372932 Not Pat Pend like I thought. Any info on this one? I think it might be an early one as the script is a bit different that the later ones that were made in Canada.
Thanks
Paul
 
brighamguy":wtu5bnpc said:
Actually I made a bit of a mistake. One of my estate pipes is marked "Can Pat" 372932  Not Pat Pend like I thought. Any info on this one? I think it might be an early one as the script is a bit different that the later ones that were made in Canada.
Thanks
Paul
Hey Paul. The "Patent Era" Brighams were made between 1938 - 1955, and available at your local pipe merchant until they sold. My dad bought a few Patent Era pipes early in his pipe career, which started in '57 or '58, so at least a few Toronto pipe shops had some in inventory years after they stopped stamping them with the patent #.

And good eye -the script logo on the Patent Era pipes is different from the modern one - it's been "updated" a few times over the years.
 
Welcome. Plenty of fellas here into restoration. Might even be a whole bunch of topics posted. Lots of good info here either way. Enjoy your stay
 
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