Denmark, 1970-80s A nicely made Danish freehad from Erik Nording. The pipe comes the most probably from the 1970-80 when his old gradings system was applied (A to F and 1, 2, 3….). An absolutely fine sandblasted ring grain covers both the bowl and the shank!
England, 1960s An extremely rare and very interesting Charatan’s Make pipe of their best period (“Lane era”), i.e. late 1960s – early 1970s, when the glory of Charatan’s eclipsed all competitors, including Dunhill. At these times the twin bore stems were quite popular as their buttons were better resistant to teeth pressure. But anyway, most…
Poland, 1980s A creature of the legend of Polish pipe carving art. Ryszard Kulpinski along with Ryszard Filar started at Walat brothers workshop in 1956 (!). Over the next decades Walat pipes were developed into a highly respected national brand (“walatowka”) despite all possible complications connected with the communist regime: lack of materials (first of…
England, 1949 The sandblast finish is considered to be invented by Dunhill, at least this fact was confirmed with patents of 1917 – in Great Britain and 1920 – in the USA. From the very beginning Algerian briar was used for blasted pipes as it was much softer and provided deeper and more attractive finish….
England Invicta started as a pipe repair service (“Medway Briars”). The careful choice of material, successful market policy and the carvers, experienced with Dunhill and Charatan, made the company one of the live legends of British briar. Invicta pipes is a product of cooperation of three masters – Colin Fromm (Charatan’s, Dunhill), Bill Ashton-Taylor (Dunhill,…
England, 1950-70s A very convincing and very lightly smoked traditional English billiard made by Comoy’s. Their McGahey series was made most probably for the McGahey tobacconist located in Exeter, Devon, UK. The shop is still open nowadays and you can easily find it on Google Maps. We haven’t been there yet, but every English tobacconist…
Ireland, 1910-15 This compact “military” billiard has recently celebrated its century. Except the name of the maker and the city name, there are no other markings on the pipe, in particular a designation of the manufacturing country (COM). Such situation was in 1910-15, when the Peterson patent has already expired, but the stamp “Made in…
England, 1950-70s H. Simmons was one of the most famous London tobacconists with a long history and very nice tobacco shop in Burlington Arcade. The pipes were ordered from different sources including the Dunhill company. In 1980 the business was acquired by Dunhill. We can’t confirm that exactly this pipe was made by Dunhill; but…
England, 1960-70s Both the stamping “Made by hand” and the heavy bowled shape were absolutely typical for the Charatan’s second Lane era (1965 – middle of 1970s) pipes. This sample was perhaps predetermined to become at least an upper middle grade pipe, but a couple of scratches and chips changed its destiny quite dramatically and…
USA A very impressive unsmoked pipe of a very rare series made by the one of the largest USA pipe manufacturers (currently acquired by S. M. Frank & Co. Inc.). There’s no shape number therefore we’re unable to say for sure which period the pipe belongs to. The most probably it’s a creature of the…