Pipas Soler

Pipas Soler is a briar business operating in the town of Amer in Catalonia's Girona province, carried through generations by the same family. Its name is remembered by pipe enthusiasts in connection with two separate lines of work: on one hand, a raw-material source selling briar blocks to pipe makers, and on the other, a small workshop where pipes are shaped one at a time on its own bench.

Family and Origins

The business is dated to 1890. According to the story handed down, a family member's marriage to a French craftsman who worked with briar drew the Solers into the heath-root trade; although sources tell this kinship differently, they converge on the date. From that point the family built a system centered on buying burls, cutting them, and exporting rough blocks (ebauchon), passing the trade down through generations. This period coincides with the years of briar's rise centered on Saint-Claude; the cutting workshops on the Mediterranean coast were the link feeding Europe's pipe factories.

Today's master, Joan P. Soler Molina — Jean-Pierre Soler in French — is recorded as having been born in the French town of Cogolin; his father, Pedro Soler, emigrated to the south of France during the Spanish Civil War, and part of the family also worked in the pipe trade there. After returning to Amer following the war, the family continued selling ebauchon and later also entered pipe production. Joan P. Soler started at fourteen as an apprentice at the cutting works; he advanced his pipe-making skills over time through his own interest, and also made other objects such as canes and ornaments from briar. Records indicate he has worked as an independent master since 2001.