Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy (KB&B)

Kaufmann Bros. & Bondy, known for short as KB&B, is a manufacturer founded in New York in 1851 that was, until the mid-twentieth century, counted among the largest companies in the American pipe industry. Today it is best remembered for the Kaywoodie and Yello-Bole names born under its roof, while pipes bearing the company's own stamp form a separate field of collecting.

From a Bowery Shop to a National Network

The German-born Kaufmann brothers opened a small shop in New York's Bowery neighborhood in 1851. In the early years the goods sold were meerschaum and clay pipes sent by a third brother from Vienna; production itself began in the back room of the shop. According to accounts, the firm took the name it is known by today in 1854, when a partner named Bondy joined the business.

The sales network spread beyond New York in the last quarter of the century; the agencies in Chicago, Atlanta, St. Louis, and San Francisco were mostly headed by family members and close acquaintances. The firm's two emblems — the inlaid clover leaf and the lettering set within the leaf — were registered in 1881. KB&B at one point also came to own the name C.P.F. (Colossus Pipe Factory); the exact year of the transfer is not known, though some pipes dated to the late 1910s carry both stamps together. According to accounts, the founding partners withdrew from the business in 1898; relatives carried the company on, and from the turn of the century the firm began producing its own briar pipes under the KB&B stamp.