As I mentioned before, Kaywoodie made a big selling point out of advertising their use of real Mediterranean briar, because they had large stockpiles of it and during the war there was no way to import more.  Some other U.S. pipe makers ran out and tried to use American briar, which is not fit for pipes by any means.

Based on inflation, the pipe above would cost $140 right now.  That was a lot of money to be shelling out for a pipe in 1943.  An expensive pipe like this was certainly at least a Prime Grain, but more like was a Flame Grain (both high-end Kaywoodie grades).  With wood of this quality, the meerschaum insert is only a sales gimmick--it wouldn't improve the smoking qualities at all, except in that the usual cake build-up would be neither necessary nor even desired.

During this era, Kaywoodie stopped using a white cloverleaf logo and instead used a white circle with a black cloverleaf outline in the center of it.  The logo could be either on the top or side of the stem.

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If anyone can identify the rifle, please leave a comment.  I'm sure it's a .22, and it looks like it has a peep sight, but that's about all I can say about it.

This is one of my favorite old ads, for sure.

The "*pipe smoker live longer" is a reference to the 1964 Surgeon General's Report on smoking.  A couple of articles about this report can be read here and here.

click to enlarge

One of the few ads I have that pictures a white briar (third from top).  During WWII, Kaywoodie had more than enough good briar warehoused to last for a long time, and they made a big deal out of it in their ads.  They also were sure to create the "IMPORTED BRIAR" stamp on their pipes, which others began imitating--and still do, although now it's pretty much irrelevant (as I mentioned previously).

However, Kaywoodie did not have enough meerschaum stocked.  During the war they couldn't import it, so they came up with white briar.

It was supposed to have the look of meerschaum and the feel of briar.  In my opinion, it really has neither.  White meerschaum is a soft, creamy kind of white.  The Kaywoodie white briar was just briar with a special finish applied that they invented.  It was bright and glossy and entirely unlike the appearance of meerschaum.  Also, the finish was only skin deep, and if the pipe accidentally got scuffed or scratched too hard, the natural color of the briar would of course show through the scuff.  It doesn't have the feel of briar because of that slick glossy finish.  I had one once, smoked it a little, then cleaned it up nice and sold it.

Kaywoodie continued to make and sell them, though, even after the war when meerschaum became available again.  It was something different, and it was something that people would buy.

Top to bottom in this ad, we have a Chesterfield (Kaywoodie's knock-off of the Peterson System pipe) billiard, a top-o-da-line Flame Grain apple with a completely gratuitous and unnecessary meerschaum lining (another gimmick), the aforementioned white briar billiard or possibly pot--hard to tell--with a rustic finish that you would probably never see on a real meerschaum, one of those Falcon knock-offs with an aluminum stem and a threaded bowl (change bowl shapes at your whim), a nice Super Grain bulldog, a straight Dublin with its own briar pipe rest (nice), a real meerschaum, and at the bottom another top-o-da-line Flame Grain without some silly insert.