Talbert Pipes

Talbert Pipes is an American handmade pipe workshop founded in 1998, run jointly by Trever Talbert and his wife Emily Talbert. The workshop's history spans two continents: four years after founding it moved to France, and after working there for seven years returned to the United States. Today two kinds of work run side by side at the bench: pieces shaped by hand from start to finish, and a classic line finished from factory-turned blanks.

From Painting to the Pipe Bench

Before turning to pipemaking, Trever Talbert worked as an illustrator and painter; in the early 1990s he exhibited in fantasy and horror art and won awards in the field. He came to the bench in the mid-1990s through a few attempts with pre-drilled kit blocks; once he saw how much such ready-made molds narrowed his shape and proportion options, he looked for a way to drill his own blocks. His first mentor was retired American maker Paul Perri; Talbert consulted him on both briar and drilling and curing methods. In later years, ties formed with colleagues such as Al Baier, Mark Tinsky, Mike Butera and Paul Bonaquisti broadened this knowledge base. The turning point came when he won the first Pipes & Tobaccos magazine national pipe-carving contest in 1997; the brand was founded the following year. Talbert had set up a pipe forum on AOL, the online service of the day, and also promoted his business through his own website; for this reason he is counted among the first names in the artisan pipe generation to establish themselves online. He is also mentioned in the article Go West, on the American handmade pipe scene.