Roland-Briars (Roland Schwarz)

Roland-Briars is the brand under which German pipe maker Roland Schwarz produces pipes bearing his own name. The brand emerged in the first half of the 2000s and is a typical example of the path from hobby to profession. Before he began producing, Schwarz had smoked a pipe for roughly thirty years, yet during all that time he had never taken an interest in how the pipe he used was made; his profession was not pipe making but media design.

From Repair to Production

What changed direction was a secondhand pipe collection given to him. Schwarz began accumulating and reconditioning these pipes in 2000. Repairing an estate pipe involves, on a small scale, many of the operations of production, from cleaning the chamber to reshaping the mouthpiece; this pursuit gradually turned into a desire to make his own pieces.

The decisive name in this transition was German maker Jan Harry Seiffert. Schwarz carved his first pipe under his supervision, and nearly all the pipes he made in his early period passed through Seiffert's review. The second guiding figure was Belgian collector Erwin Van Hove, whose contribution concerned not so much the technique of pipe making as when and to which circles the work should be announced. According to records, within two days of the brand's website going live, several well-known American and European enthusiasts had placed orders.