GBD City de Luxe 9438
England, 1930-70s
“The present invention has for its object to remove or minimise the above mentioned objection and inconvenience by preventing or arresting such puncturing of the mouthpiece and, to this end, consists in providing the mouthpiece with an insertion composed of a material of comparative or sufficient hardness to resist the boring action of the teeth while not being subject to any deleterious action by the saliva; a material such as ivory, bone or the like has been found suitable but other materials having similar characteristics may be employed. “
The tuskan lip patent application was written in 1933 and the City de Luxe pipes with such the improved “twin bore” stems were produced approximately until the middle of 1970s. Nevertheless such pipes are very rare now, their owners are usually not interested to sell them. So there’s a great opportunity to possess a “Tuskan lip” creature of the iconic and highly collectible 9438 shape from the legendary manufacturer!
The pipe marking is “City de Luxe \ LONDON MADE”, “MADE IN ENGLAND \ 9438”. The length is 12.9 cm (5.08″), the bowl’s height is 4.2 cm (1.65″). External diameter of the bowl is 4.4 cm (1.73″), internal diameter is 2.0 cm (0.79″). The depth is 3.2 cm (1.26″) and this pipe weights 61 gr. Briar, vulcanite stem, no filter. We had only to re-patch an insignificant sand pit on the front of the bowl.
