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Drucquer & Sons is a name with a long, long history, stretching back to 1841. That isn't what concerns us though. Don't get me wrong, it's nice and all that D&S was around for so long, but our main concern comes later... much later. Even long after John Drucquer III relocated from London to Berkeley, California in 1928. Our main concern is around the time a young Greg Pease first stepped in D&S's door, and a very special thing happened: he was welcomed. What's more, he continued to be welcome. In fact, he was so welcomed he ended up working there, the master blender we know today starting out as a humble mixer of the D&S house signature blends: the same blends you can find on the site today.
The truth is, however, that more important than the first introduction to blending, was the welcoming which came first. It was by the "gang" that held sway over D&S's inner sanctum, the backroom, that Pease was not introduced to pipes, but to finer pipes, and not introduced to pipe tobacco, but the finer things pipe tobacco could be (including the then still-newfangled concept of aging tins, an accidental discovery it seems, resulting from those who had hoarded favorites in the face of a lot of changes concerning who-was-blending-what).
"The back room of Drucquer's was where I first began to learn the subtleties of the pipe. And the profound pleasures it could bring." - G.L. Pease
If it hadn't been for those older fellows, wise in pipe ways and willing to share (advice, news, lies of the entertaining sort, truths of the important sort, discoveries, doubts — likely the usual mix people create when they get on well together, plus of course tobacco) without ever making Greg feel like he was just the kid, the neophyte... well the G.L. Pease we know today very probably would have never come about. In an article on his site, Greg once wrote: "...a dangerous lot of scals if ever there was one. We were armed; we had pipes, and knew how to use them." And also: "I owe those men a lot."
One good turn deserves another, and that's why the Drucquer & Sons blends are still alive today, though the Drucquer shop itself has long been a memory. Greg kept them that way.
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Comments
No offense intended, but I would like to see a few more paragraphs about Drucquers blend, both pasr history and their ressurection. I greatly admire Greg Pease and his blends, but there has already been enough about and by him to fill a book.
Is it posible to know which pipe is it on the picture? Beautiful.
@Martin Thta's my old Bari Harmonie. The grain's a little muddy but it is a beautiful shape, thanks!