Paul Tatum (Tatums Workshop)

Paul Tatum is an American handmade pipe maker who signs his pipes with the Tatums Workshop stamp. His total output has stayed small in number, but he has carved out a distinct place in the American artisan pipe scene through the mouthpieces he casts himself and the detailed carving he applies to the body surface. The distinguishing mark that identifies his work from a distance is a glass eye embedded in the back of the mouthpiece.

Mouthpiece Casting and the Eye Mark

Tatum's most technically distinctive feature was that he cast his own mouthpieces rather than cutting them from ready rod. He would mix the resin by hand, adding in additives such as amber particles or shredded tobacco; because amber's density is close to that of the mixture, the particles would stay suspended rather than settling to the bottom. The real problem was air bubbles trapped in the mix. By his own account, he cured the piece in a pressure vessel at around 90 psi (roughly 6 bar), keeping the gas dissolved in solution so that no bubble marks were left on the surface. His best-known pattern was the flame motif: flame-shaped channels were cut into a partially turned mouthpiece, liquid resin was pressed into the channels, and the piece was then turned again; every additional color meant repeating the process from the start. For the general properties of such materials, see the mouthpiece materials entry.

The glass eye he set into the back of the mouthpiece — of the type used in taxidermy — served both as a signature and as a grade marker; set with epoxy into a socket opened with a fine tip, it could be picked out from a distance, letting the quality grade be read at a glance. On recorded examples, the stamp consists of the Tatums Workshop name alongside a grade name and a number; a gold-colored eye set into a green cast mouthpiece, along with gold-banded pieces, are among the known examples.