Jolly Old Saint Nick

We've just spent an entire day wrapping and packing all of our Christmas gifts, so forgive me if I'm stuck in a holiday frame of mind. The pipe shown here is another older Talbert, one which very nearly became the model for a Christmas pipe set. I really like white stems - I'm one of those odd few who enjoy both stems and pipes in unusual colors, but in this case the material worked strongly against me. My white acrylic rod is very hard and very different in consistency from the other colors, and drilling it is a serious challenge. It is terrible for overheating, melting into the drill flutes, and snapping drill bits - I bet I went through four bits just getting this stem drilled! So, with that sort of hassle to deal with, white stems never became a part of any Yule pipe set, and this pipe, the "Nicholas", remains a one-off. The silver band was another bit of hand-craftsmanship - I bought it in tube form in the US and did the decorative ring turning and hand carving myself. I still haven't had the time to search for a good supplier of silver here in France. I'd like to start using it again, but as always, the language is a barrier between finding a good silversmith who can do custom work.
In other news, and speaking of unusual colors, I just posted a solitary green Ligne Bretagne today. Also, for those who may be interested in picking up one of the older Sebilo morta pipes, my friend Nicholas Stoufflet (of the FumeursdePipe club here in France) has one on ebay now - see it here.