CHARATAN’S Make Selected

England, 1960s

A very high grade Charatan’s pipe from the “Second Lane era” (1965-76), the period of the brightest blossoming of this brand, delightful shapes and grains which eclipsed all others pipe makers including Dunhill. Every Charatan’s admirer knows the highest grade was the “Supreme”. Another one of the highest grades, “Selected” level was the second from the top. In fact, it’s difficult to explain at times why the certain work of art was graded only as “Selected”: in both cases the pipes were made of a very high quality briar, had clear attractive grain and very stylish shapes created by leading carvers from Charatan’s. In our humble opinion “Supreme” pipes were usually larger and the shapes were a bit more conservative. At least as much as a Charatan’s pipe could be “conservative”. 🙂

The pipe markings are “CHARATAN’S MAKE \ LONDON. ENGLAND \ SELECTED”, “Made By Hand \ In \ City of London”. The length is 14.3 cm (5.63″), bowl’s height is 3.5 cm (1.38″). External diameter of the bowl is 4.6 cm (1.81″), internal diameter is 2.1 cm (0.83″). The depth is 2.4 cm (0.94″) and this pipe weights 42 gr. Briar, vulcanite stem, no filter. The chamber has a regular smoked wear not excluding some signs of a light webbing, but nothing dangerous.