Pfeifenbox

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Fritz Becker

Tier:

Country: Italy

Price: € 140+ (estates)

Production method:

Notes: Fritz Becker - the father of Paolo - died in 1991 after an eventful and successful life. An Austrian Jew, he fled Vienna in the 1930s, served as an intelligence officer in the British army during WWII and settled in Rome after the end of that conflict. There, he worked as a painter, sculptor, designer and diplomat - representing the World Jewish Congress at the Vatican.

Fritz and Paolo established their own line of pipes in 1979. Their partnership was very close and their style far more homogenous than usual among father/son carving duos. Indeed, Paolo says that Fritz' ideas still guide his hands.

It must be noted that there is only one brand - that started by both Beckers and continued by Paolo to this day. The nomenclature provides no way of ascertaining whether a pipe made during Fritz' lifetime is 'a Paolo' or 'a Fritz'.

Comments: Though Paolo has confirmed that the pipe shown here was indeed carved by his father, the label 'Fritz Becker' is often used to describe any Becker pipe (by either maker) pre-dating the death of Fritz.

With that in mind, I have given the elder Becker a separate gallery page. Personally, I would also class him just a little lower than Paolo. Though most ingredients of today's Becker pipes were in place during Fritz' lifetime, the product has become even more refined during the past decade. I feel that the younger of the Beckers has now achieved a level of technical perfection and artistic ease that both he and his father were still striving for in the 1980s.

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