England, 1998
The idea of using bamboo came from the WWII times when supply of briar to the United kingdom faced a really dramatical shortage and the English manufacturers looked for any possibility to use different materials if not for the complete pipe making, but at least to compensate for the deficit of briar. Competent people say bamboo was firstly adopted by Dunhill to make shanks and soon it became a very popular option among other brands. Such pipes were named “Whangees” after the bamboo canes and umbrellas and they successfully remain popular and demanded until our days.
The pipe has no shape number stamped on it, but it definitely should be 4201 where 4 is the Group size, 2 – saddle stem (although today Dunhill is not very strict in using digits for stem shapes, we’ve seen saddle stem pipes with numbers 31.., 41 etc) and 01 – the apple shaped bowl.
The pipe markings are “(dunhill) \ BRUYERE \ MADE IN ENGLAND 38”, “(4)”. The length is 16.6 cm (6.54″) and the bowl’s height is 4.7 cm (1.85″). External diameter of the bowl is 3.8 cm (1.5″), internal diameter is 2.1 cm (0.83″). The depth is 4.0 cm (1.57″) and this pipe weighs 40 gr. Briar, vulcanite stem, no filter. The pipe was quite moderately smoked and very well preserved.
Leave a Reply