England
Great, convincing and unsmoked product of the Alfred Dunhill company.
The pipe markings are “HARDCASTLE \ SANDBLAST \ MADE IN LONDON \ ENGLAND” and “927”on the silver collar. The length is 15.5 cm, bowl’s hight is 4.6 cm. External and internal diameters of the bowl are 3.3 cm and 2.1 cm. The depth is 3.7 cm and this pipe weights 59 gr. Briar, vulcanite stem, no filter.
England, 1960s The stamping “Made by hand in London City” was absolutely typical for the Charatan’s second Lane era (1965 – middle of 1970s) pipes. This unsmoked sample was perhaps predetermined to become at least an upper middle grade pipe, but a couple of scratches (or surface neat cracks?) changed its destiny quite dramatically and…
England, 1946-67 Argyle is obviously the Savory’s brand, but it seems that the pipe comes from the time, when both Savory and Hardcastle did belong to the Dunhill family and there were no objections to make a “Hardcastle’s Argyle”. This is really a nice pipe with a very stylish (Hardcastle’s) “weighted” bent shape and a…
USA, 1980-90s An exquisite, nicely styled (and still unsmoked!) pipe made by Thomas Cristiano. Tomas Cristiano was the Italian by origin, his family emigrated to the USA in 1968 and several generations of Cristiano are involved into production and marketing of wonderful briar pipes. Thomas began at the S.M. Frank & Company factory – one…
England, 1954 A very unusual unsmoked Hardcastle’s pipe from the period between 1946 and 1967. That was a really great time for this brand: the company belonged already completely to Dunhill, but keeped family management and production traditions. The bamboo shank makes this pipe absolutely attractive and absolutely rare and the shield with the engraved…
USA, 1980-90s The pipe is from the T. Cristiano’s old stock. It was shaped and drilled approximately in the 1980s, but finished nowadays. Tomas Cristiano was the Italian by origin, his family emigrated to the USA in 1968 and several generations of Cristiano are involved into production and marketing of wonderful briar pipes. Thomas began…
England, 1930-40s A pre-Dunhill (Family era) Hardcastle’s Camden lovat made before 1946. It seems the life of this pipe wasn’t so easy so we had to involve a number of restoration techniques to revive and prepare it to a new start. But now it’s ready – an old, glorious and at the same time unpretentious…