I love seeing pipes in old movies, which is just one of the reasons many of my favorite films were made between 1930 and 1950. During this time, men smoked pipes and cigars wherever they pleased and looked stylish while doing it. William H. Powell is one of my favorite actors, and is perhaps best known for his role as Nick Charles in The Thin Man movies. Even my wife, who is not especially a fan of old films, enjoys watching Nick and Nora (played by Myrna Loy) travel around New York City in classic cars or simply kicking back with a martini - or five - in one of the many fine establishments they frequented. Nora always seemed to be wearing the finest clothes, as did the other women cast in various roles. During the first Thin Man movie, there’s a scene featuring a dinner party, and my wife pointed out that one female was wearing a dress by Hermes (the white "H" gave it away). And so I mentioned to her that the company also was a pipe brand.

In most of these old movies you’ll see a lot of pipe smoking, but that rarely happens in modern films. We watched one of The Lord of The Ring movies on Saturday night and noted a number of scenes of when an elf, dwarf, man, or hobbit was smoking a pipe. "Cutty!" my wife squealed when someone was sipping a clay. Times like this make me very proud; not only because she likes the pipe, but that she knows the shape name. Pipe sighting in cinema is fun past time for many a pipe man, but it's especially nice when my wife plays along. I suppose she's proud of me whenever I can point out Louis Vuitton bags in movies too. We're training each other for brand and design recognition, you could say. How fine would it be to take a trip back to the 1930s? Me with my pipe and my wife, as beautiful as always, decked out in Hermes with a Louis Vuitton bag just for kicking around.

Tonight we have some briars that were made during this era, which can be found in the estate section. You’ll also find new cigars from Perdomo, as well as new briars from Tsuge, Dunhill, Luciano, Chacom, Johs, Brigham, Savinelli, Peterson, and Vauen. A few really beautiful sterling silver tampers make their debut tonight, and they caught my eye as soon as they entered the building! I was going to talk with Eric about the tampers and pipe sightings I had over the weekend, but I'm shunning him. It is fun to push his buttons at work, but I'm finding much more amusement today by not telling him things. That cup of coffee he just slurped? It was made on Friday. That donut he just took a bite of? It's a little-known fact that it fell on the floor and someone picked it up to throw away and got distracted. He seems to be enjoying it, though, so I think I'll just keep quiet and let him fully enjoy is cream-filled delight.

Adam Davidson: Quality Control & Pipe Inspector