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Recently got a few pipes to restore from a Craigslist ad. I found the stamping on the stem of this one interesting—"J. B. Winston" across the top—but couldn’t find any mention of such a brand. The "L" stamped on the side of the stem gave me a lead, however. I came to find it wasn’t a brand at all.
This was a "coupon pipe" stamped with the original owner’s name. Larus & Brothers collaborated with Linkman Pipe Co. to create these “Signature” pipes.
Ads like the one pictured would be in magazines or inserts in Edgeworth packaging. One would fill out the coupon with their information and signature, mail it with a dollar, and receive the “Edgeworth Sampler Kit”—a pipe engraved with their signature and three Edgeworth samples: Ready-Rubbed, Junior, and Sliced.
This ad is from a 1938 issue of Outdoor Life Magazine, which seems to be the first year of the promotion. Although the “Signature” trademark was renewed in 1958 and 1978, 1940 is the last year I see ads, so not sure how long this was offered.
Some other pics
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Beautiful job. Enjoy it in good health.
Great job! What fantastic offer, even for 1940. A pipe and 3 tobacco samples. Wonder how large the samples were.
I’m surprised I somehow missed this thread when you posted it originally. Part of my collection includes old ads and catalogs that offered deals like this one, although I don’t have any Edgeworth ones that I can remember. Quite a few for a pipe with samples of tobaccos that are long gone that I can’t even find a mention of on the internet, but many recognizable ones too. Always cool to see and especially rare to be able to match an original pipe to the offer. The only ones I see fairly often are the silver inlaid jockey pipes, which were a special offering from Kentucky Club, back when they made fifteen different tobaccos. They offered a plain pipe for free with a tobacco selection or you could upgrade to the silver for a couple of dollars.
If you like those, I feel like they were pretty a pretty popular offering by Kentucky Club years ago. There always seems to be ten or more of them listed on eBay at any given time and they usually sell for $25 to $50, probably needing a little polishing. Just search: silver horse (or jockey) pipe.
Nice to know! I'm about to get a falcon but the one i can find here has a huge chamber that i didn't feel like spending money on it. Where on internet do you recommend to buy state pipes?
Have you checked eBay? There are many smaller sellers I know of but they usually focus on high end pipes.
If you’re looking for a falcon, tobaccopipes carries the full line at great prices, though they mostly seem to be out of stock on bowls at the moment.
Yes, an excellent restoration of a pipe with a good backstory!
That's really nice that you have the original ad for an interesting pipe. An excellent restore job! I have a pipe from a Sir Walter Raleigh promotion probably from around the same time period. It's a briar with a carved head of Sir Walter Raleigh. I don't have the ad, but I have seen pictures of it on the internet. I'm not a collector-collector but I do have a collection of pipes. I bought the pipe off of ebay because it was unsmoked and I thought it looked pretty cool. Not to mention that I was smoking quite a bit of Sir Walter Raleigh at the time.
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