Vincent (Roger Vincent)

Vincent is the workshop associated with the name of carver Roger Vincent, who worked in Saint-Claude, in France's Jura mountains. It is not a mass-production factory but a one-man bench: here a briar burl, its bowl and shank, is carved by hand to depict a face or a figure.

Vincent is regarded as the last master to have carried on this craft in France; some sources refer to him as the last carving pipe master on a European scale as well.

The Line of Mastery

Roger Vincent, as the story goes, entered the trade in 1958 as an apprentice to his father Léon Vincent, himself a pipe carver from Saint-Claude. He grew up in years when the town's pipe industry was still strong; carving was then a distinct specialty embedded within factory production, alongside turning the shank or polishing. In 1994 Vincent received the Meilleur Ouvrier de France ("Best Craftsman of France") title, France's best-known official recognition of craft mastery. He retired in 2002, but did not close his bench, and continued to produce a limited number of pieces after that date. By his own account, the number of pipes he carved over his career exceeds two hundred and fifty thousand.