Lester C. Garlow: an Unsung American Briar Carver

Lester C. Garlow (Lester Commodore Garlow) was an amateur maker in the United States who carved figural briar pipes in the 1950s and went almost entirely unrecognized in his own time. He worked under no brand, trained in no workshop tradition, and left behind about twenty-three pipes. His name entered pipe literature only after his death, once scattered auction records and family accounts were pieced together.

From the Navy to the Bench

By one account, Garlow joined the US Navy in 1940 and served six years, reportedly spending most of that time aboard the light cruiser USS Marblehead. The ship's official record shows it was attached to the Asiatic Fleet in the Far East at the start of the Second World War, was badly damaged in an air attack in the Makassar Strait on 4 February 1942, and after repairs was assigned to the South Atlantic and, from 1944, the Mediterranean. This means the account of "throughout the war in the Pacific" does not fully match the ship's actual route. Marblehead's wartime service was also the subject of a book published in 1944.

He is said to have taken up carving aboard ship as a pastime. After being discharged, his wife Alice's purchase of a block of briar advertised in a Manhattan shop turned this manual skill toward pipes. The first pipe drew praise from those around him and was given away; the carvings that followed grew steadily more elaborate.