Zenith

Zenith is a brand producing pipes from cast ceramic in the Dutch city of Gouda. The business behind the name was born in 18th-century Gouda, where clay-pipe making supported an entire city, and continued its production into the early 20th century by switching from hand-pressing to plaster molds. The detail that makes the brand recognized beyond the world of briar is its double-walled construction, which leaves a gap between the inner bowl and the outer body.

From Guild to Family Business

According to records, the business begins on 17 March 1749, when Pieter Dirksz van der Want (1716-1774) received his master's certificate from the Gouda pipe makers' guild; the same records report that the trade was passed from father to son across eight generations. The firm was long known under the name P.J. van der Want Azn. The Zenith name came into use during the years of the First World War; the year it was adopted varies in sources between 1915 and the war's end. In the second half of the twentieth century the business was headed by Otto Adrianus van der Want (1926-2016) and his son Aart. Dutch collector sources have counted Zenith the oldest continuously operating pipe factory since the 1950s, placing 1780-founded Chacom second in this ranking; this claim has no independent confirmation.