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"I refer to myself as a craftsman"

Germany's best-known carver, Rainer Barbi is also one of the pipe world's most eloquent and knowledgeable commentators. Like Mark Tinsky in the USA, he has a passion for debunking myths - and makes no attempts to shroud his own practices in secrecy. In this lengthy interview, he talks about prices.

Rainer explains the basic criteria of rational pricing, as he sees them, emphasising genuine value for money rather than maximum profit strategies. He then takes a look at concrete production and distribution costs, before going on to discuss individual phenomena such as the effects of transatlantic trade and the estate market.

(Pfeifenbox will be publishing Rainer Barbi's responses in a loose series, starting with his analysis of what makes pipes valuable in the first place.)

Are Barbis really as expensive as they are sometimes portrayed? What's the entry-level price today?

RB: Entry level starts at about 250 Euros. The medium segment is priced at around 650 Euros, and absolute top pieces cost roughly 1250 - but there will only be three or four of these a year.

That said, what's expensive? Are we talking in absolute or relative terms? If we take price as an isolated factor, anything beyond the budget of an interested individual must be viewed as subjectively expensive. Of course, that goes for better-class factory pipes as well as for artisan pieces.

If you put things into perspective, the key is value for money. That involves at least two criteria. One is the quality of the craftsmanship, though perception of this largely depends on each individual's sensitivity. Not everyone is able to differentiate, and many lack the experience to make comparisons. Indeed, where should they have acquired the expertise?

Pipe books offer little help, basically only differentiating between 'firsts' and 'seconds' - with the definition largely depending on grain and flawlessness of the wood. Another method of classification is to talk of factory pipes, semi-freehands and high-end pieces. However, when we're discussing high ends, few authors suggest meaningful ways of defining them. Retailers aren't much help, either, since they have to rely on the same books as their customers for information. Besides, due to staff shortages, they lack the time to educate themselves. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule.

Perhaps the problem isn't really all that urgent, given that most pipe purchases appear to be emotionally motivated anyway. Mind you, who would base a choice of hifi equipment on feelings alone? Here, technical performance would count - which is comparable to basic standards of workmanship when applied to pipes.

Personally, I refer to myself as a craftsman. My focus is on perfecting craftsmanship. This being the primary concern, rarity comes second. To be honest, I often cringe when I see poor craftsmanship masquerading as 'art'. The characteristics of this are always the same: Symmetry is ignored; the shank meets the bowl in some undefined slant; one side of the bowl droops while the other is totally displaced - besides which the right hand side of the bowl is usually thicker than the left. I used to think that such things were due to poor sight or parallax problems. Today, I'm convinced that it's a lack of control - and that's putting it kindly. The notion that stems should have a flush fit has only just dawned on the artisan scene. And drilling that emerges just about anywhere in the bowl is nothing short of outrageous. It's as if an electrician were to lay wires criss-cross - except that an electrician would never get away with it. A collector once uttered the ultimate verdict by saying that he was "too poor to be able to afford shoddy work."

The second criterion of value is rarity, as applied to grain and flawlessness. There are still pipe lovers who think they can get their hands on perfect, clean straight grain for 100 Euros. In fact, quite a lot of people believe this. Of course, it's a notion that stems from lack of knowledge regarding briar as a raw material. Once again, smokers aren't even to blame for such knowledge gaps. Pipe literature makes my hair stand on edge in this regard - containing nothing but fairy tales, starting with all those myths about Corsican briar. Hardly a pipe lover in the world has ever visited a briar mill and got an impression of the relative output of top and average quality wood. Otherwise, he would know that flawlessness and top grain in combination are rarer than perfect diamonds.

So the price of a pipe only depends on the quality of the craftsmanship combined with the rarity of the material?

RB: No, of course not. You've got to add the decisive factors of design and smoking qualities - though the latter don't become apparent until the pipe is actually used.

Style - the harmony of a pipe's lines - could theoretically be seen as a subjective issue. But that's only theory. In practice, all handcrafted products are subject to the basic aesthetic formula known as the 'golden cut'. It's relatively simple to create a shape based on grain and elimination of flaws, but infinitely more difficult to do so in a stylistically perfect way. Take a look at many straight grain products from Italy and compare them with the work of major Danish artists. What an exaggerated sense of self-esteem some Italians must possess: Their production criteria revolve solely around grain and flaw quotas, yet they proceed to sell the resulting asymmetric and fancy self-portraits as 'art' - and at prices beyond any hint of embarrassment.

Personally, I simply can't grasp such pricing policies. When I was a student, every penny of my money was hard earned. I was forced to establish value-for-money coordinates and to judge pipes accordingly - a relative approach that has remained my dogma to this day. It doesn't matter whether we're talking of artisan pipes or factory products: Prices must remain affordable, comprehensible and consumer-oriented. We artisans might like to be treated and pampered as Van Goghs, but in reality we remain user-oriented craftsmen - despite occasional attempts to cover up a lack of basic skills by disguising the product as 'art'. Every pipe maker's emphasis should remain associated with the term 'craftsmanship', even though some people may be reluctant to identify with such a low-level definition of the trade.

Part II

(November 23, 2003)

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