The History of Pipe Design: France and England

(Smokingpipes.com) ... We start in St. Claude, France, c. 1850. The Comoy's pipe factory, established by Francois Comoy roughly 30 years prior, had made a name for itself fashioning pipes from clay and boxwood for Napoleon's armies. Around 1850, however, the factory began producing pipes out of briar, having recognized the wood's superior smoking qualities and unknowingly establishing a precedent for pipe making that would endure turns of centuries. From that point, St. Claude would become the source of briar-pipe making through the rest of the 19th century, with tributaries eventually expanding to other cities and into other countries. Continued