William Demuth Company

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William Demuth. (Wilhelm C. Demuth, 1835-1911), a native of Germany, entered the United States at the age of 16 as a penniless immigrant. After a series of odd jobs he found work as a clerk in the import business of a tobacco tradesman in New York City. In 1862 William established his own company. The William Demuth Company specialized in pipes, smoker's requisites, cigar-store figures, canes and other carved objects.
The Demuth Company is probably well known for the famous trademark, WDC in an inverted equilateral triangle. William commissioned the figurative meerschaum Presidential series, 29 precision-carved likenesses of John Adams, the second president of the United States (1797-1801) to Herbert Hoover, the 30th president (1929-1933), and "Columbus Landing in America," a 32-inch-long centennial meerschaum masterpiece that took two years to complete and was exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
The Presidential series was the result of Demuth's friendship with President James A. Garfield, a connoisseur of meerschaum pipes. Demuth presented two pipes to Garfield at his inauguration in 1881, one in his likeness, the other in the likeness of the President's wife. Later, Demuth arranged for another figurative matching the others to be added to the collection as each new president acceded to the White House, terminating with President Hoover. 
Note: This information originally appeared on pages 22-23 of Collecting Antique Meerschaums (Schiffer Publishing Ltd.,1999), by Ben Rapaport. It was used without permission in the article written by Maureen Timm, As seen in The Antique Shoppe Newspaper, July, 2005, but is used here by permission of the original author.
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In 1897 Ferdinand Feuerbach joined the Demuth company and by 1903 had become the production manager. Feuerbach is credited with developing Demuth's popular Royal Demuth and Hesson Guard Milano pipelines. He left in 1919, when Sam Frank Sr. needed an experienced pipe man to run his pipe factory, located at 168 Southern Blvd., in the Bronx. Feuerbach and Frank had been close friends since Frank started his own business in 1900 and was closely associated with the sales staff of WDC, selling their line of pipes.
WDCMilano01.jpg|Circa 1920s Author
WDCMilano07.jpg|Author Detail
WDCMilano08.jpg|Author Detail
WDCMilano13.jpg|Author Detail
File:WDC 1925Milano01.jpg|1925 Patent
File:WDC 1925Milano05.jpg|1925 Patent detail
File:WDC 1925Milano07.jpg|1925 Patent detail
File:WDC 1925Milano08.jpg|1925 Patent detail
File:WDC 1925Milano09.jpg|1925 Patent detail
WDCMilano2-01.jpg
WDCMilano2-07.jpg
WDCMilano2-08.jpg
WDC-Sterling1.jpeg
WDC-Sterling2.jpeg
WDC-Sterling3.jpeg
File:Demuth01 - Copy.jpg
File:Demuth03 - Copy.jpg
File:Demuth07 - Copy.jpg
File:Demuth08 - Copy.jpg
File:Stratford01.jpg
File:Stratford05.jpg
File:Stratford07.jpg
File:Stratford08.jpg
File:Stratford10.jpg
The following is an interesting baseball themed pipe by WDC. If you have any information about this unique pipe, please add it here, or send it to sethile.pipes@gmail.com and we can add it for you.
WDC-TheLeague.jpg|Left profile
WDC-TheLeague2.jpg|Right profile
WDC-TheLeague3.jpg|Threaded bowl removed and placed above the stem
File:WDC-TheLeague4.jpg|Looking down, bowl removed
File:Hesson Jr01.jpg
File:Hesson Jr07.jpg
File:Hesson Jr08.jpg
File:Hesson Jr09.jpg
File:Hesson Jr10.jpg
Hesson01.jpg
Hesson07.jpg
Hesson08.jpg
Hesson09.jpg
Hesson10.jpg
Hesson11.jpg
File:WDCSimplex01.jpg
File:WDCSimplex07.jpg
File:WDCSimplex08.jpg
File:WDCSimplex09.jpg
File:WDCLaddie01.jpg|Laddie
File:WDCLaddie07.jpg|Laddie Detail
File:WDC Milano01.jpg|Milano
File:WDC Milano08.jpg|Milano Nomenclature
File:WDC Thorobred10.jpg|Thorobred
File:WDC ThorobredRedskin08.jpg|Thorobred Nomenclature
File:WDCKerly01.jpg|Thorobred Kerly 
File:WDCKerly07.jpg|Thorobred Kerly Nomenclature
File:WDC1898SAmber01.jpg|1898s with Amber
File:WDC1898SAmber05.jpg|1898s with Amber Nomenclature
File:WDCBakelite01.jpg|Bakelite
File:WDCBakelite09.jpg|Bakelite Nomenclature
File:WDCBakelite15.jpg|Detail
File:WDCBradshaw01.jpg|Bradshaw
File:WDCBradshaw07.jpg|Bradshaw Nomenclature
File:WDCDurobit01.jpg|Durobite
File:WDCDurobit07.jpg|Durobite Nomenclature
File:WDCJubilee01.jpg|Jubilee
File:WDCJubilee07.jpg|Jubilee Nomenclature
File:WDCJubilee08.jpg|Jubilee Detail
File:WDCMarlboro09.jpg|Marlboro
File:WDCMarlboro07.jpg|Marlboro Nomenclature
File:Marlboro01.jpg|Marlboro
File:Marlboro07.jpg|Marlboro Nomenclature
File:Marlboro08.jpg|Marlboro Detail
File:WDCMilano09.jpg|Milano
File:WDCPrince01.jpg|The Prince
File:WDCPrince05.jpg|The Prince Detail
File:WDCPrince06.jpg|The Prince Nomenclature
File:WDCTurin01.jpg|Turnin
File:WDCTurin07.jpg|Turnin Nomenclature
File:WDCWinton01.jpg
File:WDCWinton05.jpg
WDC_Yo_Ho01.jpg|Yo Ho
WDC_Yo_Ho03.jpg|Yo Ho details
WDC_Yo_Ho04.jpg|Yo Ho details
WDC_Campaign01.jpg|Campaign Display
WDC_Campaign02.jpg|Campaign Pipe
File:HessonGuard01.jpg|Hesson Guard Milano
File:HessonGuard07.jpg|Hesson Guard Milano Details
File:HessonGuard08.jpg|Hesson Guard Milano Details
Hesson GuardMilanoPatent01.jpg|Hesson Guard Milano Patent
Hesson GuardMilanoPatent07.jpg|Milano Patent Detail
Hesson GuardMilanoPatent08.jpg|Milano Patent Detail
In early 1937, the City of New York notified S.M. Frank & Co. of their intent to take by eminent domain, part of the land on which the companies pipe factory was located. This was being done to widen two of the adjacent streets. As a result of this, Frank entered into negotiations to purchase the Wm. Demuth Co.'s pipe factory in the Richmond Hill section of Queens. It was agreed upon that Demuth would become a subsidiary of S.M. Frank and all pipe production of the two companies would be moved to DeMuth factory. New Corporate offices were located at 133 Fifth Avenue, NYC.
Demuth pipes continued to be made at the Richmond Hill plant till December 31. 1972. Then the Wm. Demuth Company met its official end as a subsidiary company by liquidation. Demuth's mainstay pipe, the Wellington continued to be offered in the S.M. Frank catalog until 1976. In the mid-80's, the Wellington even made a brief return as a direct to the consumer offer.
File:Wellington1919.jpg
File:Wdc1.jpg
File:Wellington.jpg
File:WDCWellington01.jpg
File:WDCWellington07.jpg
File:WDCWellingtonBlast01.jpg
File:WDCWellingtonBlast09.jpg
WDC-Wellington2-01.jpg
WDC-Wellington2-07.jpg
WDC-Wellington2-08.jpg
== Patents ==
The Hesson pipes are named after William Wallace Hesson whose inventions lead to two patents:
Hesson Jr18.jpg|Hesson Patent US1566866https://patents.google.com/patent/US1566866 granted Dec. 22, 1925, courtesy Doug Valitchka
WDC Hesson.jpg|WEDC Hesson 1932 Patenthttps://patents.google.com/patent/US1855800, courtesy Doug Valitchka
WDC Pat 1936060 a.jpg|Nov. 21, 1933 patent, filed Dec. 2, 1932
WDC Pat 1936060 b.jpg
== Links ==
* You may also enjoy reading Ben Rapaport's article A Demuth—Dunhill Connection?.
* You may also enjoy listening to Brian Levine's interview of S. M. Frank president, Bill Feuerbach, on the Pipes Magazine Radio Show
== References ==
Category: Pipe makers by nationality
Category: United States
Category: Patent