England, 1960s
High titles, academic degrees, diplomas and medals are not necessary indicators of value and quality. Of course, it would be wrong to ignore all regalia too. But both people and pipes should be evaluated not only by clothes and marks.
The “Reject” pipes are always of an interest for us. First of all because the quality standards were much higher decades earlier, these standards were almost paranoid at some manufactures. Thus many Reject pipes are a good quality products of famous manufacturers. Unfortunately it’s not always clear who made a specific “Reject”. Therefore the second reason why we like such pipes is a riddle and challenge “Guess, who am I?”
It’s possible sometimes to judge more or less surely from the pipe’s nomenclature and shape. But in this specific case we don’t have a doubt because we have got both an original pipe with manufacturer nomenclature and a reject pipe. Dimensions, weight, even the tool prints in the tobacco chamber – everything coincided! And so we have in our collection two Lane’s 30120 Charatan’s pipes.
The difference is only in staining and grain. The Reject has a wallnut color (not red- brow) and excellent cross-grain. Obviously this pipe was born to be a higher grade than Belvedere. We’re pretty sure this pipe intended to be Charatan’s Perfection nomenclature. You may look and compare: the following 6 pictures show Charatan’s Belvedere, next 4 – the Reject pipe.
The first pipe is marked “CHARATAN’S MAKE \ LONDON ENGLAND \ BELVEDERE”, “(L)”, “30120”. The second pipe nomenclature says “REJECT \ LONDON MADE”. The length is 15.1 cm, bowl’s hight is 4.7 cm. External and internal diameters of the bowl are 3.4 cm and 2.0 cm. The depth is 4.1 cm and every pipe weights 49 gr. Briar, vulcanite stem, no filter.
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