The discovery of briarwood as a medium for pipes was perhaps the most important technological advancement in pipe-making history. Before briar, fragile clay and meerschaum pipes dominated the choices of pipe smokers, supplemented by pipes of various kinds of wood: boxwood, cherry, beech, maple, and others, none of which provided long-lasting confidence. They worked, of course, and smokers liked them; many still enjoy these woods for smoking, but once briar was employed for pipes, it became apparent that it was superior, that it would withstand repeated high heat over years of use, and that it was tough, resilient, and admirably able to withstand the stresses of daily life.

It was in the 1850s when briar was introduced to a Saint-Claude wood turner — the year 1858 has been cited, but it's difficult to confirm. Saint-Claude was a religious center founded by two monks in the year 430, first called Condat, then Saint-Oyend-de-Joux, and finally Saint-Claude. The town (they're called communes in the French Republic) was known for its wood carvings and turnings of religious and household items, including pipes made primarily from boxwood and horn. Those pipes made up an insignificant fraction of the wooden goods manufactured, until a traveler appeared in the workshop of Aimé Gay with a load of boxwood for carving. He also had a pipe made of a dense wood that he said was made by a shepherd friend who claimed to have smoked it for a year — yet it was not damaged or burned, as would be expected.

The excellent condition of this pipe intrigued Monsieur Gay. Woods used at the time simply didn't persevere this well under smoking conditions. The traveling wood supplier had five blocks of briar with him, and Gay ordered a gross of briar blocks, which he made into pipes.

The pipes were very well received by the smoking public, and more Saint-Claude wood turners began making pipes from briar. Manufacturing in the city became dominated by pipe making, and the craft expanded into other parts of the world as well. Briar was the miracle material that pipes had been waiting for, and despite having no local briar supplies of its own, Saint-Claude became the birthplace of the briar pipe and the center of pipe making.

The Brotherhood

The Confrérie des Maîtres Pipiers de Saint-Claude, meaning the Brotherhood of Master Pipe Makers of Saint-Claude, was created in 1966, the idea of Edgar Faure, who became the association's Premier Fumeur de pipe de l'année, or, the Confrérie's First Pipe Smoker of the Year. There is also a position of President, which rotates through the Master Pipe Makers willing to serve.

Initially reserved for local pipe makers, the Brotherhood soon invited interested pipe smokers and carvers of particular fame and reputation to join. The Brotherhood holds two meetings every year, one electing the new Premier Fumeur, who receives a special pipe carved in their likeness by Paul Lanier, who was chosen as best pipe sculptor in 1991. The council of Master Pipe Makers is comprised only of pipe manufacturers, while other members are referred to as colleagues.

Briar was the miracle material that pipes had been waiting for

Both meetings induct new members, who must have been sponsored by a Master Pipe Maker before consideration. Colleagues cannot invite new members. Membership is highly selective, with current numbers tallying around 1,500 worldwide. Induction is a highly ceremonial affair with robes, hats, incantations, and tests of smoking skills. Membership in the Confrérie is perhaps the most coveted and respected honor within the international community of pipe enthusiasts.

Smokingpipes and the Confrérie

Staff here at Smokingpipes have twice been honored by the Confrérie: Sykes Wilford was inducted June 12th, 2015, and on June 9, 2023, Shane Ireland, our VP of Retail, also joined the Brotherhood. Both were invited by Antoine Grenard, owner of Chapuis-Comoy & Cie (Chacom) in Saint-Claude.

"Shane is a pipe enthusiast," says Antoine. "He has a wealth of knowledge about pipes and tobaccos, both from an industry perspective and as a pipe smoker. I'm particularly impressed by his knowledge about shape numbers for pipes from virtually any factory that uses them. It's quite an interesting skill. And he has an incredibly wide knowledge of tobaccos."

Sykes attended the ceremony to see Shane inducted; while he's in Saint-Claude annually, it hasn't lined up with a Confrèrie meeting since that time. "It was important personally for me to attend," he says. "When Antoine sponsored Shane, I knew I wanted to be there with him because it's cool watching another one of us be inducted and seeing the ceremony from that perspective. And we don't have enough opportunities to put on silly hats and such things these days, so it was a neat experience."

Ceremonies have been important throughout human history because they support and strengthen interpersonal connections, acknowledge accomplishments, preserve tradition, celebrate individual milestones, and help to unite groups of people. Robes and rituals, solemnities, decorum, etiquette, and formalities all contribute to the human experience and strengthen our connections to one another.

The Induction Process

"The whole thing is inherently daunting," says Sykes. "While waiting, you're in an empty room with your fellow inductees with a pipe from everyone who's ever been inducted, all lined up on shelves. You've turned over your own pipe to the museum to join them. Then you must knock on the door to be let into the main ceremony chamber." Before that happens, a discussion among members determines whether these are the right people for the Brotherhood, whether they've been sponsored appropriately, and if they're to be trusted with the sacred rites. Then the prospective new members enter and the biography of each is read by the sponsoring Master Pipe Maker.

Ceremonies have been important throughout human history because they support and strengthen interpersonal connections

"It takes a long time," says Sykes. "There were eight people inducted during Shane's ceremony, and the biographies were long. After that, there's a formal acceptance process and then a series of rituals."

Each inductee receives a pipe they choose from a variety of shapes made in Saint-Claude. The pipes are filled from a special bronze humidor for the ritual of lighting, followed by a ritual for emptying the pipes. "Then," says Sykes, "They lay out their pipes and are called one by one to the front of the room, where they are knighted with a giant pipe." It isn't a political knightship, yet it carries similar gravitas and symbolism. However, with everything in the ceremony shifted toward themes of pipes, it's enormously fun. Imagine attending a knighting ceremony, but one that's all about pipes and the deeds of pipe smokers — it's like stepping into the alternate reality that should exist in a civilized world. This ceremony is performed by the Grandmaster, who dubs each shoulder of the inductee with a giant Billiard pipe.

"Then they're given their symbols of office," says Sykes, "their medallions on ribbons, along with very impressive certificates, pins, pipes and such. It all takes several hours."

Shane went through all of that and had a great time. "The whole thing was pretty amazing," he says, "and I think it's especially cool that it's tied to the pipe museum in Saint Claude, which has awesome exhibits; it's a remarkable collection." That museum is in the center of Saint-Claude and is called the Pipe and Diamond Museum, displaying diamonds and the equipment for cutting them as well as pipes and the equipment for making them. Both are fashioned from natural materials and crafted to become works of art. It's a fascinating combination of themes.

Between the museum and the meeting chamber is a large room displaying a personal pipe from every person who has joined the Brotherhood going back to 1966. "As part of the ceremony," says Shane, "each inductee leaves a personal pipe as a donation to the museum. There's a pipe from Tom Eltang, for example, and from Kyoichiro Tsuge, the founder of Tsuge. There's a couple of other pipes from Americans, and from a couple of other Danish pipe makers, and then from a whole lot of French guys."

"The purpose of donating a pipe," says Antoine, "is that we hope every member will return to Saint-Claude and visit their pipe, remember their experience, and continue to enjoy the unique history of this place."

The ceremony is conducted, unsurprisingly, in French, and Shane does not speak French. Sykes speaks some, but both were there with limited conversational aptitude. However, the spoken-language barrier was transcended by the language of pipes. "In the context of pipes," says Shane, "it's pretty easy to pick up what's going on, and before the ceremony, we were well briefed. It wasn't a problem."

Shane says that he and the other seven inductees waited in a room at the back of the museum until a specified time, when they were required to knock on a big, ornate wooden door. A small window in the door opened. "In French," says Shane, "we were asked, 'Who goes there, who's knocking?' Then we walked into the room and lined up in front of a big shrine — I'm not 100% sure what it is, but it's basically a bronze pipe stand with 12 spaces that resembles a gentleman's arm. And at the end of the arm is an ashtray, and at the end of the shoulder is the head of a Confrérie Grandmaster, presumably the founding member or the founding chairman, and his head is the tobacco jar."

It isn't a political knightship, yet it carries similar gravitas and symbolism

Sponsors then read the defense of each prospective member and tell the room about them and their contributions to pipe smoking. "At the end of that," says Shane, "we demonstrated that we are true pipe smokers. We were brought a tray of pipes made in Saint-Claude for the ceremony; each of us chose one, and we individually went to the front of the room to fill our pipes from the humidor. We loaded and lit our pipes to demonstrate that we know how, then stood back in line as each of the other inductees continued to fill their pipes, and we smoked."

After the inductees have filled and smoked their pipes, they return to the shrine to empty their ashes in the ceremonial ashtray, and then the vote is held. "After that," says Shane, "we were all knighted by Denis Blanc, who is the owner of Butz-Choquin and current Grandmaster of the Brotherhood. He had this giant ceremonial pipe, this really oversized magnum Billiard with a horn stem. Everyone is knighted on the shoulder with this pipe. Then, you're officially a member of the Confrérie. It's a pretty long ceremony with a lot of pomp and circumstance, but really cool and truly ancient feeling. They've been doing this the same way for over half a century and it's easily apparent. Mine was the 148th group."

"... we hope every member will return to Saint-Claude"

Shane drew support from other members he knows who flew in to be at the ceremony. "it's nice how many people came," he says. "Tom Eltang and his wife Pia came for the ceremony too. And another friend of mine from Turkey named Atilla, he was the President of the Istanbul Pipe Club, a prominent collector and very well known in the community. I had heard from Tom and a couple of other people previously — it's pretty common for internationals to fly in when people they know are being inducted. Having Sykes there, having Tom and Pia there, having Atlila there, and having all of my French friends there — it was pretty awesome."

Post Ceremony Activities

The evening does not end with the ceremony. "Afterward," says Shane, "everyone walked down the street and across the big bridge to a restaurant called La Bruyere, and we all had a big dinner together. The interesting thing about La Bruyere is that before it was a restaurant, it was the Lacroix pipe factory."

Saint-Claude is a town that has embraced its history of pipe making. "Everything in St. Claude centers around the pipe business," says Shane. "The trash cans on the sidewalk are big, bent Billiards made of metal. All over the city are murals of pipe making and pipe smoking. In our hotel, on our floor, there was a massive mural, a portrait of Antoine's father, Yves Grenard. It's an amazing place and it really is the birthplace of the briar pipe; it's very much like a pipe Mecca. It's almost like going home, and just to be there was an honor, much less to be part of this group that's existed for so long and that has so many important and significant members in the pipe industry. It's super humbling and I'm grateful for Antoine's sponsorship, and I'm grateful that I had this experience."

... the spoken-language barrier was transcended by the language of pipes

"In my opinion," says Antoine Grenard, "induction into the Confrérie des Maîtres Pipiers de Saint-Claude is among the finest moments a pipe smoker can experience. It promotes the spirit of pipe smoking and emphasizes Saint-Claude's importance in its history, to always remember that Saint-Claude is the birth place of the briar pipe and share those special moments of discovering the pipe and smoking the pipe together with people of very different backgrounds. There's nothing else like it."

Bibliography

• The Confrérie des Maîtres Pipiers de Saint-Claude
• Pipe & Diamond Museum, Saint-Claude, France
• "Why Ceremonies are Important," International College of Professional Celebrants (Nov. 18, 2021)