The cover shows some pipes in a series called “Julpipor” (X-mas pipes) made by the pipemakers Bengt Carlson and Sara and Love Geiger. The pipes were ordered by Quality Briar in the USA and in an article Bengt tells us all about how the came true.

Annually our club is arranging a pipe auction and last year this auction took place in the beginning of November in Malmö and we can show you some pictures from that event. As told in earlier issues of our magazine, we have had a lottery among our members for the Jubilee pipe that last year was made by nine Swedish pipemakers. The draw in that lottery took place at said auction and we are happy to show a picture of the lucky winner, Bengt Fahlstedt, enjoying his first smoke in that very special pipe.

One of our members, Percy Eriksson, spends a month now and then in China – not curious as he is married to a Chinese woman. In an illustrated article he gives us an initiated picture from that large country and the situation for pipe-smokers there (and how difficult it may be to find ordinary pipe cleaners!).

The well-known pipe brands Hilson and Big Ben are made by Gubbels pipe factory in Roermond, Holland. Last year, when the World Cup in pipe-smoking was arranged in Holland, two of our members, Mikael Petersson and Sten Klang, met the manager of that factory and were invited for a visit. A report with many pictures is found in this issue.

The Tobacco & Match museum in Stockholm has been mentioned several times in our magazine and in November last year we got a most welcome reason to visit that lovely museum again. The reason was that a new tobacco shop was to be inaugurated. Since long the museum has had a shop, but now it was restored into a genuine tobacco shop from the last part of the 19s century. The shop carries a wide range of goods like cigars, snuff, clay pipes, cigar cutters, snuff boxes, matches, books and a lot more. Of a special interest are the goods made in the museum factory, cigars named Puck, snuff in bulk and clay pipes. Shortly it will also be possible to have your own mixture blended there. A lot of people had gathered for the inauguration, champagne and snacks were served and everybody was in high spirits. This museum is one of the last of its kind in the world and is really well worth a visit for everyone visiting Stockholm.

We can also show some new pipes from Savinelli, all of them now available on the Swedish market and a new series of tobacco from My Own Blend that has also been introduced here. One of our local pipe clubs (MGKK) has been lecturing about pipes and tobacco to a society of young men and a well-known and experienced wine taster, Michael Sporrong, has tried his taste buds on tobacco. He started with some old, well-matured tobacco, one of them about 80 years old, and we will certainly hear more about his tests in the future. Our expert on antique pipes, Johan Hedborg, tells us the story about another interesting pipe in his collection.

This and much more is found in this issue of Rökringar. To foreign members of our club, an English Summary is attached with every new issue.

Jan