The Dr. Grabow Appreciation thread.

[Chef Benny]

Latest Ebay find ...

[Ruffinogold]

Latest Ebay find ...

Livin large , man !

[Tsal]

Latest Ebay find ...

Very nice! I'm patiently waiting for a Kaywoodie one myself. If you find one point me in the right direction.

[Mr Beardsley]

Latest Ebay find ...

Very nice! I'm patiently waiting for a Kaywoodie one myself. If you find one point me in the right direction.

I'll keep my eyes peeled for ya too

[Tsal]

Latest Ebay find ...

Very nice! I'm patiently waiting for a Kaywoodie one myself. If you find one point me in the right direction.

I'll keep my eyes peeled for ya too

Thanks, brother!

[Chef Benny]

LINKMAN'S FIFTY GRAND
- early 1940s

This is the famous red spade! Technically not a Dr. Grabow pipe. This was one of the first uses of the spade logo on a Linkman. This is unique because to my knowledge, only the Fifty Grand, and the Ambrol had red spades. This paneled sitter is pretty clean. Shape number 1507.
Cheers!

[Silver]

Sweet!

[HSigurdsson]

Chef, I always thought that Grabow purchased HLT for (or simply gained) the adjustomatic, but you're saying the opposite, that HLT purchased Grabow or Linkman. I will defer to your knowledge, as my HLT connection interest is solely related to my interest in the Willard line of pipes.

I appreciate your posts and your knowledge. Keep it coming, reminds me of the old DGCF days!

Could you please flesh out the HLT/Grabow story for me? Thx!

You got it!
In a nutshell..

HLT stands for Henry Leonard and Thomas.
The company was founded by 3 business men, in Ozone Park .. Queens NY in 1938. They were a successful pipe company with the Royalton being their most popular offering at the time.

They were chuggin' along just fine as a pipe company, when in the early 1940s the war had already begun to disrupt the supply of quality briar.

The Henry in HLT was
Mr. Henry Lavietes ... the son of David Lavietes...the dude who invented the adjustomatic device.



David (the dad) moved to Sparta in the early 1940s looking for rhododendron burl to send to his son at HLT Headquarters in NY. This led to the establishment of D&P pipeworks.. which stood for David and Paul (his other son) .. D&P was ostensibly more of a briar supplier / sawmill than an actual pipe company. But they did make some cool pipes like the Spartan and the Trapwell.

In 1944 Henry abruptly moved the entire operation to NC.

In 1953 Mr Louis B. Linkman was ready to retire.. it was HLT that acquired the Dr.Grabow Pipe Company and all of its assets and equipment. The move to Sparta was underway.

Around the same time.. HLT goes on a buying spree, and acquires Continental Briar, which made a pipe called the Royal Duke.. Also the Van Roy pipe company which made a pipe called the Bard. The Hollycourt line was also purchased by HLT from Linkman. They had won patents for a Royalton stem and filter system as well.

These companies would all function as separate businesses until in 1985 they would all be rolled into what was called Sparta Industries. The Willard was made by Sparta from 1963-Late 70s.

Below are some photos of my HLT Royalton .. this is an early 40s model made in NYC. This pipe is basically a Pre-Grabow HLT Royalton.

Hey Chef Benny
I have this Dr Grabow Regal that I got from my wifes grandfather a few years ago.
He hadn't smoked for decades so all his pipes stems were pretty yellowed but the pipes are in great condition.
Ive started to clean up this nearly unsmoked pipe but its not finished.
Ill try to post pictures if I can figure it out.
The pipe says "Regal" over "Dr Grabow" on one side and "Imported Briar" over "Adjustomatic" over "Pat. 2461995".
It is a Billiard shape with a metal band and obviously a Vulcanite stem due to its color.
Any information would be cool to hear.

[HSigurdsson]

I guess I do not have permission to add pictures yet.

[Piping Abe]

I guess I do not have permission to add pictures yet.

You do, go to the full message editor and click the green ‘i’. Choose your photo and wait for it to load. Itll load as a link