We have some important announcements in this issue, so let us start with them:

The Jubilee Pipe: There will be a lottery among our members for that very special pipe, made by nine Swedish pipemakers. Every member is allowed to buy one lottery ticket and the price is 100 SEK. The draw will take place at our Pipe Auction in Malmö on the 12s of November. A pipe-stand, a tamper and a leather bag is included.

The Club Pipe: For the first time our club-pipe is made by a Swedish pipemaker, Lars Jönsson. So far Lars is not known as an individual pipemaker, but despite that he is very experienced, as he for many years has been helping Tom Eltang to make the Sara Eltang line of pipes. But this is the first time Lars makes pipes signed by himself. The name he uses is “Lomma”, which is the name of the place where he lives. That name is also deeply connected to pipe-making, as it was there the legendary Sixten Ivarsson was born.

The pipes are available in two finishes, smooth and sandblasted, and every member is allowed to buy one of each. Apart from Lars’s logo the pipes will be stamped “SP 20 år 2011” and numbered, the smooth pipes and the sandblasted separately. A smooth pipe is pictured on the cover and there are more pictures inside this issue.

The price is 825 SEK for a sandblasted and 1100 SEK for a smooth pipe. If you order one of each they will cost 1850 SEK. Postage is included. Only members are allowed to buy the pipes.

The Pipe Auction: Our annual pipe auction takes place on the 12s of November and pictures of the pipes are found on our site www.svenskapipklubben.se

Bids from members may be sent to the secretary (jan.pipa@tele2.se) at the latest on the 10s of November.

We have met two new Swedish pipemakers, Johnny Petersson and Henrik Rydberg. So far, neither of them has a lot of experience, but from what they have achieved so far, it looks promising for the future. Some of their pipes are pictured in this issue.

One of our members, Per Kreutz, has visited Dan Pipe in Lauenburg, situated just outside Hamburg. He got a grand tour through the large shop and tobacco factory by the owner, Dr. Heiko Behrens, and was very impressed from what he saw. He gives us a comprehensive report from the visit illustrated by some pictures.

We also have a report from our annual meeting in Malmö and a club-meeting in Gothenburg. At the last mentioned meeting we first visited Brobergs Tobakshandel and after that we were invited to a barbecue, arranged by one of our members, Mikael Petersson.

We are glad to find that the interest in antique pipes is growing among our members. Johan Hedborg gives us the story of two pipes from his large collection and Mikael Östberg has found a pipe on e-bay with an interesting story. We also tell you about a new virtual museum on Facebook, The Tobacco Pipe Artistory, started by two of the most knowledgeable experts in the field of antique pipes, Daniel M. Beck and Ben Rapaport.

Brobergs Tobakshandel is one of our most prominent tobacconist’s with shops both in Gothenburg and Stockholm, and besides offering everything a smoker needs, they also have a large selection of “life-style-articles”, as they call them. One of those articles is pens. We visited their shop in Gothenburg and learned a lot about pens, and especially about fountain pens. There is a lot of handiwork involved in making such a pen of a high quality, and when handiwork and precision are involved it is always most interesting.