As the story goes, according to a 1937 New York World-Telegram article, he had no sons, and so he taught his two daughters, Anna and Louisa Wilke, how to make pipes and blend to***co, and by his death in 1930 they were well versed in both trades, and adamant about only using quality briar. In 1950, when they were the focus of an article in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, they were the only women pipe
makers in the United States, and had sold pipes to Herbert hoover, Lord Halifax, John Steinbeck and others. The sisters also blended pipe to***co and repaired pipes. They did not, however, smoke pipes. Illustration pf the John Wanamaker building from the Daily Graphic, circa 1878, courtesy Doug Valitchka
Wilke prided itself on "unpainted pipes", and promised that only Macedonian briar was used, without paint, varnish, plug, or putty of any kind. As of 1950, some of their pipes were selling for up to $100.00, or just under $1,000.00 dollars today. By the release of a 1970 New York Magazine highlight of the shop, that claim had risen to $500.00, or over $3,000.00 today. The Wilke Pipe Shop was located for decades on Madison Avenue in New York City, and in the 1970s opened a satellite store in the famed Wanamaker's department store in Philadelphia, selling Wilke pipes made by Steven Johnson. In 1983, the brand was purchased by pipe maker Elliott Nachwalter and his wife, Carole Burns. They continued to operate the Madison Avenue store until the early 1990's, at which point the couple moved to Vermont and Pipeworks & Wilke was born as a mail-order business.
