Pipe brands § 4

Butz-Choquin

History

The origin of the Butz-Choquin factory goes back to Metz in France where Gustave Butz founded the factory in the 1840's. In 1858 Butz associates with his gender Choquin and the factory is baptized Butz-Choquin. In 1875 Lucien Berrod takes over the business and initiates the move to Paris two years later. The Berrod family will keep leading the business from that time onwards till the end of the twentieth century.

For the production a new factory is founded right in the city centre of Saint-Claude (Jura). This town offers sufficient skilled labour while the industry of briar pipes and buffaloe horn objects was well on its way. The factory proves to be successful and the number of labours grows rapidly, while the output is shipped worldwide within a few years.

The family bussiness is continued under the leadership of a sequence of new generations of Berrod's, finally taken over by the so-called Berrod Regad Group. In 1951 the official name is changed in Société des Pipes Butz-Choquin,

Also today, the Butz-Choquin factory is still important. The factory co-operates with all sorts of master-designers and master-pipe makers which leads year after year to new designs. Al lot of this work is done on demand for others, both other pipe making firms and shops and well as trade houses.

The 1970's is the most successfull period, when 180 workmen produced 800,000 pipes annually. Then the production slackens down and the number of employees runs backwards to some 50 men, able to get an annual production of about 200,000 pipes. The last director from the dynasty was Jean-Paul Berrod, who handed over the factory under new leaderschip some years ago. In the mean time a lot of workmen has left the factory and the production went back.

Characteristics

Already in 1858 father and gender Butz-Choquin started the production of a pipe mounted with an albatros bone stem. Named Origine, this pipe with its comfortabel long stem was popular and widely known. Even today the design still is part of the assortment, though the bone is replaced by plastic.

In course of the twentieth century a broad range of shapes is built up. Among them we find many shapes from their own workshop next to products designed by others. For instance the famous designer Joe Colombo worked out the Optimal, a functional pipe that stands horizontally as well as vertically.

At present the Butz-Choquin assortment is one of the largest in the world, counting over 1,500 shapes in almost every imaginable finish. The main production are series of pipes in unity prices. Next to this, also the hand made pipe is still produced by the more skilled labourers that finish pipes up to top qualities.

The top quality pipes have the mark BC in gold, lower in range is the silver marking while the ordinary pipes have a white logo. In numerous series of under brands the factory sells their rejects. In the mean time also the brands Dr. Boston, Chap, Claude Romain, Bontemps and Jima belong to the Berrod-Regad group.

The Smokiana pipeshop selection

Smokiana pipeshop in Amsxterdam has a wide selection of this large and important factory in stock. Among them we find series of modern design in contemporary shapes. More attractive and of better quality are the products made by the master-pipemakers of the factory, that have generally a more classic shape. These luxourious products have decorative disks of lucide of acrylite in the stems on the joint from wood to mouthpiece. The prices vary from euro 40 till several hundreds for the hand made pipes.