The Origins of Briar Pipe Shape Names

Briar pipe shape names are not a classification defined by any central body but a vocabulary that settled by itself out of the everyday language of catalogues, trade journals, and the shop counter. Three distinct layers sit intertwined within this vocabulary: names pointing to an actual person or place, names directly describing the shape, and historical coincidences that no longer have a visual counterpart today.

Why the repertoire of classic pipe shapes looks so inconsistent is explained largely by these three layers blending into one another.

Names From People and Places

Lovat is traced to the title Lord Lovat, which reaches back to the 15th century in Scottish nobility; it is associated in particular with Simon Joseph Fraser, 23rd Chief of Clan Fraser of Lovat and a lieutenant general, who lived from 1871 to 1933. Oom Paul means "Uncle Paul" in Afrikaans and was the nickname of Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger (1825-1904), who served as president of the South African Republic (Transvaal) from 1883 to 1900; Kruger is remembered in English sources of the period together with his pipe.

Prince is credited to Edward VII, who was born Albert Edward and was known as the Prince of Wales from 1841 to 1901; the king was a known heavy tobacco user. Which firm designed the shape is disputed, and the often-repeated Dunhill attribution is not certain. In fact, the firm's first royal warrant, granted in 1921, came not from Edward VII but from a later Edward who was then Prince of Wales. Place-based naming is older still: the Dublin shape is understood to take its name from the city, and in the clay pipe era naming a pipe after the town where it was made was already standard practice.