England, 1950-70s One of the top graded GBD pipes. The Virgin series followed their famous Pedigree, Prodigy and Straight Grain grades. The pipe was made in the 1970s latest, before the merge with Comoy’s by Cadogan. An extraordinary sample! Firstly, the pipe has a significantly extended stem, though it’s a Canadian (or a lumberman, to be…
Denmark, 1970s A wonderful freehand pipe made by legendary Danish artisan Preben Holm in 1970s. Initially Ben Wade was an old good English family manufactory. Soon after the WWII the brand was acquired by Lane Ltd from USA, the producer of fantastic Charatan’s pipes at that time. The new Ben Wade era (“Danish Ben Wade”)…
England, 1960-70s G.W. Sims (just the modest G.W., though some consider that he was George) is known from the first half of the XX century, and the first pipes of the artisan (and at times a repairman) were marked even more modestly – “GWS”. According to some sources, G. W. used to work for Charatan’s…
England, 1950s A very well preserved classical English lovat pipe made during the family, “pre-Lane” era. You may see that the shape number is located on the left side of the shank (from the smoker’s perspective) together with other stampings, what is typical for the Ruben era. So the pipe was made in 1950s, hardly…
England, 1976-81 It would be very much boring if everything was unambiguous and transparent with pipes origin history. But, fortunately, not all producers behaved as Dunhill with their obligatory nearly hundred years stamped year suffixes (however, Dunhill was not always pedantic too :-)). Here is, for example, a very rare (some collectors write “extremely rare”)…
England, 1950-70s A very rare GBD pipe! Even experienced collectors are unfamiliar with the “Dynasty” series. The only thing we can say for sure: this is the “Pre-Comoys” pipe made before 1981.
England, 1975 Red Bark is perhaps the best-known and valued Dunhill series among other “retired”. The Red Bark pipes were produced not for a long time – from 1972 to 1987, and in fact, they are traditional sandblasted Dunhills, but smokers and collectors are still attracted by these pipes and their unusual staining. By the…
England, 1950-70s Among numerous GBD grades the Prehistoric pipes were always hunted and appreciated because of theirs fantastically wild and aggressive sandblast finish. This amazing GBD prehistoric lovat pipe was made most probably in 1970’s latest and promises a wonderful smoke for its new owner.
England, 1933 In the beginning Dunhill created Bruyere. And several years (1910-1917) it was the single brand made by the company of a firm and dense Calabrian briar. And though pre WWII “bruyeres” were marked just by a letter “A” instead of model (or Ao like in this case), the Bruyere series is the one…
England, 1950-70s There was probably no other such creative and innovative manufacturer offering that variety of shapes and grades. For example, while at the end of the XIX century GBD catalogues offered more than 1500 models, in the second half of XX century a shape number 9889 didn’t surprise nobody. And of course, in our…