The Four Hundred Marxman Pipe Owner's Thread

[telescopes]

I am not sure just where to post this thread, but I hope this is in the right place.

Several years ago I purchased a small little six panel Marxman pipe. I liked it. This was before @Briar Lee went bananas on collecting Marxman pipes. Over the years I got a few more - but my goal was to always get a Four Hundred. Eventually I did find one for sale and I purchased it. I found another on Etsy and pointed @Briar Lee in that direction and poof, it was gone. However, this year at the Las Vegas Pipe Show, I met a man selling 400s. In fact, he had a suit case full of them. Having already gotten mine, I thought nothing of it and went my way. But then it started nagging on me - who was that man and why did he have 14 Marman 400s. With the help of @daveinlax I tracked him down and he has given me permission to post the pipes he has for sale. Earlier today, 14 were for sale. Now, I am guessing there will be only 10 left by the end of this evening.

This thread is designed for those who own Four Hundred Marxman pipe to post their pipes with pride. If you are looking for a 400, below are some that are/were for sale.



Robert Marx was a pipe genius. He invented the pipe smoking contest, did freestyle pipes when that wasn't a thing, and his pipes were made by a small cadre of pipe makers. The Four Hundred was the King of Pipes in his Pantheon of Pipes. A 14K gold band, a velvet presentation box, and the name of the buyer in a special Blue Book. But that was all marketing.

I am uncertain about the rules for telling others about pipes being sold and I am not selling the ones above. This thread is primarily for those who have a 400 to show off their 400 and converse with other about having and owning and smoking The King of Pipes. If you are interested in talking to the owner of the pipes posted above, please PM me and I'll send you his contact information. He is selling them at a price that is very affordable. Otherwise, Show us your Marxman 400 pipes.

 

[Briar Lee]

Here is Marxman 400 #154 D

It has an .880” bore and weighs 95 grams.

 

[Tate]

Not an owner yet but it will be on the way! Super excited! Might save it for Christmas!!

 

[telescopes]

My second 400 arrives tomorrow. I’ll be sure to post pictures.

 

[yanoJL]

I do not own a 400, but I do have a Mel-O that I got from Dave Neeb. There's a lot to love about these iconic pipes.
The lore, the innovation. The legendary soft Algerian briar. But that partial rustication looks almost accidental to me. Like a lawnmower accident.

 

[Briar Lee]

I do not own a 400, but I do have a Mel-O that I got from Dave Neeb. There's a lot to love about these iconic pipes.
The lore, the innovation. The legendary soft Algerian briar. But that partial rustication looks almost accidental to me. Like a lawnmower accident.

The 400 was claimed by Robert Marx as the first freehand.

Fifty years later as an old man without a pipe factory he hand made 80 Freehand 50th Anniversary pipes in 1987.

This one is drilled and stemmed (with a commercial Danish freehand stem) but left unfinished to demonstrate the process:




We need to remember Marx was selling twenty five dollar pipes in a world where this long, large, fill free and fancy Weber Golden Walnut retailed for five dollars.





Bob Marx didn’t sell these ridiculously expensive, huge, ugly, rustic pipes to rugged outdoor men of action. In today’s money they’d be $500 if that gorgeous Weber cost $100.

These were sold to women who gave them to men they wanted to be rugged outdoor men of action.

The 400 was sort of a 1937 version of Isotoner gloves, or one of those little one cup coffee machines.

 

[Briar Lee]

Story time, involving bragging size pipes and pretty girls.

Campbelitte mothers make Jewish mothers look as negligent as feral cats.

My mother always told me not to worry about getting married. After I’d graduated medical or law school and had been out in practice anout ten years she’d be happy to set me up with one of the daughters of her friends. And she was deadly serious, about that, underneath the smiles when she said it.

Then my second year at UMKC I met a lovely young girl from Nevada Missouri who was a part time model, looked like a young Emmylou Harris, and whose Daddy owned a chain of a dozen banks.

What she saw in me I could not figure, but she claimed she liked my manners and wit.

My mother pretended to like her so she might someday see her grandchildren.

But one day while my true love and I were strolling on the ultra swank and ritzy Country Club Plaza, we stopped into a new Dairy Queen franchise and to my surprise a young man named K B from Humansville was the owner.

Country Club Plaza | Kansas City's Favorite Shopping & Dining District

Explore 15 blocks of shopping and dining in the heart of Kansas City, Missouri with 100 stores, 30 restaurants, and amazing architecture.

countryclubplaza.com

He left his operation to the care of minions while he sat at a table smoking an impossibly large and beautful Nording freehand.

KB was likely in his early thirties and he claimed to know my sweetheart’s father, and also other members of her mother’s family at Osceola, and she smiled and blinked her double eyelashes and admired his pipe.

She asked him where he’d bought his pipe and KB directed her to a pipe shop in the Plaza.

We left KB to mind his store and strolled to that pipe shop where my girl asked to see the Nording pipes and I selected the forty dollar grade 3, that has a small dimple on the side. She offered to buy it for me, but I’ve always had my pride although it came within three dollars of busting me until I could get to the bank.



We went out by the fountains and I filled my new Nording and asked what she thought about KB.

She said he has a lovely family on the wall of his new Dairy Queen.

Maybe you should remember that, if you smoke that pipe when I’m not around.

 

[didimauw]

Story time, involving bragging size pipes and pretty girls.

Campbelitte mothers make Jewish mothers look as negligent as feral cats.

My mother always told me not to worry about getting married. After I’d graduated medical or law school and had been out in practice anout ten years she’d be happy to set me up with one of the daughters of her friends. And she was deadly serious, about that, underneath the smiles when she said it.

Then my second year at UMKC I met a lovely young girl from Nevada Missouri who was a part time model, looked like a young Emmylou Harris, and whose Daddy owned a chain of a dozen banks.

What she saw in me I could not figure, but she claimed she liked my manners and wit.

My mother pretended to like her so she might someday see her grandchildren.

But one day while my true love and I were strolling on the ultra swank and ritzy Country Club Plaza, we stopped into a new Dairy Queen franchise and to my surprise a young man named K B from Humansville was the owner.

Country Club Plaza | Kansas City's Favorite Shopping & Dining District

Explore 15 blocks of shopping and dining in the heart of Kansas City, Missouri with 100 stores, 30 restaurants, and amazing architecture.

countryclubplaza.com

He left his operation to the care of minions while he sat at a table smoking an impossibly large and beautful Nording freehand.

KB was likely in his early thirties and he claimed to know my sweetheart’s father, and also other members of her mother’s family at Osceola, and she smiled and blinked her double eyelashes and admired his pipe.

She asked him where he’d bought his pipe and KB directed her to a pipe shop in the Plaza.

We left KB to mind his store and strolled to that pipe shop where my girl asked to see the Nording pipes and I selected the forty dollar grade 3, that has a small dimple on the side. She offered to buy it for me, but I’ve always had my pride although it came within three dollars of busting me until I could get to the bank.

View attachment 265874

We went out by the fountains and I filled my new Nording and asked what she thought about KB.

She said he has a lovely family on the wall of his new Dairy Queen.

Maybe you should remember that, if you smoke that pipe when I’m not around.

I really need a Nording. I look at them alllllllll the time, and always change my mind. I just need to do it.

That one of yours is fantastic. I like the dull well worn ones!

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Only 400 owners of these pipes... that's about what I would have guessed.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

Only 400 owners of these pipes... that's about what I would have guessed.

I knew @Briar Lee would be in whatever it meant and looks like he's already taken it for a couple turns down a dusty Missouri road! Gee! Haw! Always a good lesson or two.

To me they were inspired by Frankenstein's monster with the scars and all, but I'm sure there are folks that would disagree with me about the perfect beauty of Kate Jackson on "The Rookies"!

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

There were 600 to start with, lost 200 in the first volley.

 

[Briar Lee]

I really need a Nording. I look at them alllllllll the time, and always change my mind. I just need to do it.

That one of yours is fantastic. I like the dull well worn ones!

Save your money.

As a fashion accessory of nearly a half century ago to accompany a rich banker’s daughter out for a stroll on the Plaza it had no close peer.

It took ten years to fully break in.

After thirty five more it’s only a passably good smoker, and it gives you the air of of an owner of a Dairy Queen franchise with a wandering eye if you smoked it in public.

My enormously huge 400 is out for delivery.

It will be a dynamite smoker the first smoke. It won’t bite, it won’t gurgle, and it will taste divine.

And it’s not made to impress anyone but the owner, and whoever gave him the perfect pipe for a rugged outdoor man of action, to relax after a hard day outside.

 

[telescopes]

I disagree. I have found my F Miss Nording to be a great smoker from the start. I wouldn't mind having another. I think your girl friend tainted that pipe of yours.

tsssh.

 

[Tate]

Got mine! Needs some polishing but Absolutely stocked to have it. I now have atleast one Mel-o, Super Briar, Jumbo, Benchmade, and a Four Hundred!! Here are some quick shots of the 400 before I can clean it up.

 

[telescopes]

@Tate is the serial number i213. And the Roman numerals. 25? thats strange.

 

[telescopes]

@Briar Lee Hope to see you pics as well. I won’t be hope until tomorrow to post mine.

 

[Tate]

@Tate is the serial number i213. And the Roman numerals. 25? thats strange.

It's actually backwards D 213. I'm not sure why the numerals

 

[telescopes]

My theory is that each letter begins a new series of 400 pipes.

 

[Tate]

This is actually a 425. Super exclusive

 

[Tate]

My theory is that each letter begins a new series of 400 pipes.

What letters have you seen so far?