White Elephant Erta Ale Pipes

The White Elephant brand began as a small pipe making concern in Ettenstatt, Bavaria, founded in 1945 by Robert Maderholz. The company produced briar pipes until 1984, many of which were fitted with fine meerschaum inlays, when they began to shift their focus toward manufacturing filters. These filters were revolutionary in their time, utilizing meerschaum instead of activated charcoal and taking advantage of sepiolite's porous structure and celebrated ability to absorb moisture. After a few years of success, the range of filters expanded to include activated charcoal variants and, in 1999, White Elephant began to produce pipe cleaners. In 2019 White Elephant was sold to Kopp Pipes, who not only maintained the production of their filters and pipe cleaners, but, for the first time since 1984, began manufacturing White Elephant pipes in a variety of finishes. Though the owner has changed, their production standards remain high, and their factory resides where the brand was founded: Ettenstatt.