Mummert (Werner Mummert)

Mummert is the one-man pipe workshop that Werner Mummert runs in the town of Otterbach in Western Palatinate. Two strands come together in Mummert's work: the habit of a technician fluent in measurement and tolerance, and a sense of form built entirely through observation rather than under any master. The workshop is small and its output limited; even so, its pieces are better known among collectors in North America than in Germany.

A Technician's Second Trade

Sources place Mummert's start in pipe making in the mid-1980s; the date most often given is 1987. For decades the craft stayed in the shadow of his day job: he worked as an engineering technician, only able to get to the lathe in the evenings and on weekends. Retirement reversed the balance, but output never grew large; he is reported to complete an average of about fifty pipes a year. The workshop is said to be registered with the Chamber of Crafts (Handwerkskammer) as a turnery business, and Mummert is reported to have been accepted into the European Woodturners Association, which requires sample work to be submitted to a jury for membership; neither of these records has been confirmed from an independent source.

Because he did not train under a master, he set his own standards, and they are surprisingly simple. A pipe should first be smokeable, then comfortable to hold, and it should not tip over when set down. Sculptural pursuits that sacrifice usability for appearance fall outside Mummert's interest.