2nd Annual West Coast Pipe Show |
| Brought to you by Steve O'Neill, Marty Pulvers and Rick Newcombe. |
Las Vegas, Nevada |
At almost 67 years of age, Marty Pulvers has clearly found his niche, that being the world or briar pipe hobbyists, collectors & smokers. Having had a wide variety of jobs, and failing miserably in every one of them, Marty finally decided to match wits with people of his own mentality, pipe smokers, and was almost immediately placed on top of the heap. For nearly 20 years, he owned and operated the retail shop Sherlock's Haven, in San Francisco's financial district. During that time he was named a Kapnismologist, a Doctor of Pipes and his store was given the honor of being named one of the '10 Best Tobacco Shops In The World' by Forbes Magazine online. In June of 2006 the shop's doors were closed for good and as in Marty's words: "thereby diminishing the quality of life on this planet no little and quite some. Even though he left the retail world behind him, he was able to do it with his pants full of panache. He now operates an online store selling both new & estate pipes. None of this life experience helped him wise up, so he agreed to help produce a pipe show for the West Coast Boys. You can see him working the floor in Las Vegas, pressing palms, shouting directions, giving advice and doing his best to keep his customers satisfied. Marty has been tirelessly working the phones for the show, day and night. I cant even get two words into him because he is working like a horse trying to make his West Coast Pipe Show a success. Kicking and Screaming I was able to drag him away from his desk and ask him a couple of questions for your benefit. I hope you enjoy. West Coast Pipe Show (WCPS): How did the idea for the West Coast Pipe Show come about and whats important about it? Marty Pulver (MP): The idea came about because a number of people on the West Cast felt that we were entitled to have a pipe show here as well. The last show lost its lease. I staged four shows in SF in the 80’s, I seemed like the logical person to start another one. Its actually likely that the first ever pipe swap meet started on the West Coast by Robert Noble in the 70’s. We have all these great clubs, all this influence, all this incredible artistsry, new carvers, the west coast is a significant contributor to the hobby and a show just belongs here. In recent years, the literature produced for pipe hobbyists, both came from far west contributors in Rick Newcombe & Gary Schrier. WCPS: What makes a pipe great? MP: The pipe owners' love for that pipe. WCPS: How many pipes have gone through your hands, and not just ones that you bought. MP: 10,000 pipes have gone through my hands. More important than buying pipes, is my philosophy. I have bought a lot of pipes that I perhaps should not have purchased, but I felt that they were good examples of their style and I felt that if I didn’t buy them, somebody else would. What this did was always create a museum of pipes and a general overabundance in my store. From that point of view, I was a real pipe man. Marty & Co. at his former retail shop, the beloved Sherlock's Haven WCPS: Has any carver surprised you over the years? MP: I think the pipe maker that surprised me the most was Larry Roush. I didn’t expect Larry Roush to develop such a unique voice & I never quite understood where it came from. I knew Larry before he made pipes and he just seemed like a very likeable young man who was just a part our hobby of used pipes. Then Mike Butera suggested that I carry Larry’s pipes at a time when I didn’t even know that Larry was making pipes. I was surprised how he made his seemingly unique and awkward styles, work. He was able to integrate what seemed to be this disparate and awkward characteristic and it worked. Tonni Nielsen almost always shocks me with the level of beauty in some of his pipes. Very unexpected. WCPS: Any general industry trends that have developed over the years that you have been able to watch grow & evolve that trouble you in some way? MP: Young pipe carvers who don’t seem to want to want to get a grounding in the making of conventional shapes. They seem to want to be artists without having been craftsmen first. WCPS: What do you think of the influx of new carvers? MP: I have to be very encouraged by that. There has to be a positive reason why people want to be involved in our hobby. To that end, I will often buy a pipe from a new carver in order to encourage them to continue. Marty (big smile & pipe) with his Father & Sister, (he thinks) in 1949 at Niagara Falls. WCPS: How has the economic landscape of selling pipes changed over the years since you started? MP: The internet model has reduced the importance of the retailers and importer / distributors. It is very easy to buy directly from an artisan himself. WCPS: What do you think about the difficulty for certain smokers to get their hands on many of the good and expensive carver pipes? Any recommendations? MP: The reality is that they should wait till they become used. I have never liked the term Estate pipes, it’s a euphemism for a used pipe. For me, there are two categories, new and used. WCPS: It doesn’t seem like the idea of ‘find the great pipemaker selling cheap pipes today’ carries much weight. MP: There appears to be two levels here, to reach the same price. The old pipe maker, the Tom Eltang, bases his prices on…to some extent, your paying for his experience. Where as new pipe makers, they want to be paid for their time. WCPS: I am sure the story of your beginnings in pipes is interesting, can you take us down memory lane? MP: What started me was going to a garage sale and seeing 65 great pipes for sale, for a total of $75. I made the purchase with a bum check and had to beat the check to the bank by Monday morning, which I did. But on the way home from the purchase, I was trying to devise a justification for buying these pipes when Joy and I had just purchased a house and had no extra money whatsoever and we had to make mortgage payments. Necessity being the mother of invention, I hit on the idea of telling Joy that I was going to sell them. And that’s how I got started in the business. WCPS: It seems like so many new pipe carvers are very very good. If the craft is achieving a type of leveling off in terms of so many people being able to complete a high standard form of pipe – how do people differentiate themselves from the rest? MP: There are some fine lines that have to be tight rope walked here. Those lines may be crossing at the intersection of making a functional pipe while at the same time, expressing the pipe makers personal voice. Does that pipe ring true? And that’s what the buyer brings to the table, his subjectivity. Is it authentic? Visit Marty at his website: Pulvers Briars
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IMPORTANT WEBSITE AND INFORMATION NUMBERS For special West Coast Pipe Show room rates call the Palace Station Hotel & Casino: (800) 634-3101 For Palace Station Hotel & Casino information and amenities please visit the hotel’s website at: www.palacestation.com For table reservations or for any other information, please contact: Steve O’Neill: We’re looking forward to seeing you at the West Coast Pipe Show and we hope you’ll join us in making this an annual event. |
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