DUNHILL Shell 467, 1949

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. Although in 1960-70 the company had to use Corsican briar also, and in this case another Dunhill’s patent came into play – double processing (deep shell). It turned out that any material could provide the necessary result, you just need to have an appropriate technology near at hand. As an example – this pleasant pot shaped patent era pipe from 1949.

The pipe markings are “467”,”DUNHILL SHELL\ MADE IN ENGLAND 9 \ PATENT № 417574/34″. The length is 13.8 cm (5.43″), bowl’s height is 3.4 cm (1.34″). External diameter of the bowl is 3.2 cm (1.26″), internal diameter is 2.0 cm (0.79″). The depth is 3.0 cm (1.18″) and this pipe weights 23 gr. Briar, vulcanite stem (very slightly patched, you may identify the track under a bright light), no filter. The stem looks to be very slightly overbuffed near the shank.