Why this site now?

Other pages here at the Pipes by Mariner site offer a brief history of Pipes by Mariner, describe what the Classics are, and the awards I have won, but I would like to take a moment to tell you why, after over 10 years of dormancy I am offering Mariner Pipes for sale again.

Being able to take a chunk of beautiful briar wood and a piece of rubber or lucite and turn them into something that has an unusual, asymmetrical beauty that brings to mind the elemental forces of nature - wind, clouds, flowing water, fire - has always been quite magical for me. I have always been amazed that I can do it at all, but the meditative creative process is more valuable to me than the finished product. Throughout the years I set aside the best pieces for my personal collection in anticipation that a time would come when it would be practical and relatively inexpensive to build a global clientele.

During my peak production years I was selling to many shops and private collectors, but even then I was reaching only a small part of the pipe-smoking population. Quite simply, I found marketing to be a royal pain. The rewards were in the production and meeting people at craft shows and personal appearances in pipe shops, but even that grew tiresome.

What I wanted was a way to sell directly to collectors and serious pipe-smokers. To sell one-of-a-kind pipes directly to those who know the value and desirability of briar and pipes that have been ageing for many, many years was next to impossible prior to the widespread use of the Internet. In the mid-eighties I had been making and selling pipes for nearly 15 years, quality pipe shops were folding left and right, anti-smoking sentiment was building so I just stopped marketing.

Although there is no tidal wave pushing pipe smoking like the one pushing cigars, there are still plenty of you out there looking for unusual, high-quality pipes and I know many of you have never seen Mariner Pipes. All of the above, combined with my love of computers and the potential of the Internet combined to bring me to the decision to take many of my best pipes out of the closet - most of which have never been out of the house, let alone offered for sale - digitize them and put them up for sale on the Web. Like many sites this will be an ongoing work, I have hundreds of pipes and the pages will grow as I have time to add to them and it remains fun.

So if you like what you see or have any comments please e-mail me.