Dr Plumb Cortina Light Briar Pipe

• Overall Length: 123mm
• Overall Height: 40mm
• Bowl Height: 40mm
• Bowl Diameter: 38mm
• Bore: 18mm
• Weight: 37g
• Filter: Metal Condensing
• Gift Boxed

Dr Plumb Cortina Light Briar Pipe

Dr Plumb has always occupied a useful place in the pipe cabinet. It's the sort of pipe you buy to smoke, rather than spend the next fortnight discussing under magnification.

The marque dates to 1925, when GBD's Paris sales manager J.B. Rubinovich developed a more affordable line of pipes. The splendidly unlikely Dr Plumb name came from his secretary, Leslie W. Plumb, whose accounting abilities apparently included a talent for doctoring the figures. Early Dr Plumb production was associated with Saint-Claude, the great French pipe-making centre.

A century later, the name is still with us, and the Cortina Light demonstrates rather neatly why.

This is a traditional Bent Billiard in briar, with a tall, substantial bowl flowing into a gently curved shank and black fishtail mouthpiece. The bend is restrained rather than dramatic, giving it the familiar profile of a pipe that could comfortably have been sitting in a tobacconist's window several generations ago.

The Light finish leaves the briar a warm honey-brown and allows plenty of the natural grain to remain visible. Looking at the pipe photographed here, there's a particularly attractive mixture of birdseye and flowing grain across the bowl and shank. It's polished enough to bring the timber to life while retaining the straightforward character that suits a Dr Plumb.

Inside is Dr Plumb's familiar metal filter system, a feature also used across several of the marque's traditional briar ranges.

There's nothing terribly exotic going on here, and that's rather the attraction. It's a generously proportioned briar, a comfortable bent shape and a design that owes very little to fashion.

Dr Plumb was originally created as GBD's affordable line in 1925. One hundred years later we're still selling them.

Mr Rubinovich may have been onto something.