James Upshall Grade A Group 6 Smooth Cutty Dublin Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

James Upshall was, along with Ferndown and Ashton, part of a new wave of British hand-made, high-grade pipes in the late 20th century, with their founders largely coming from previous positions in the factories of companies such as Dunhill and Charatan. James Upshall was founded in 1978 by Barry Jones and Ken Barnes, both of whom had previously worked for Charatan and who had worked their way up to being carvers Charatan’s higher-end, non-standard shapes. Jones and Barnes’ pipes quickly grew to being something of a status symbol, and were enjoyed by King Hussein of Jordan, Anwar Sadat, Bing Crosby, Yul Brynner, Robert Wagner and Tom Selleck. The company also made house-brand pipes for Astleys in London. Sadly, James Upshall pipes are no longer made, but their reputation as some of the finest hand-turned British pipes lives on.

As seen in another recent James Upshall listing, one of the most curious things the workshop inherited from Charatan was the latter’s affinity for briar pipe shapes that were intentionally modeled on the shapes of clay pipes—albeit sometimes in a distinctive, modified form. The Newmarket, for example, was advertised in early Charatan catalogs as being part of a series of “modern adaptations from old ‘clays'” and its unique shape and name were also both used in early James Upshall catalogs. Though I don’t recall there ever being a Charatan catalog shape quite like this one, it is nonetheless quite fitting that the Upshall boys would produce something like it. After all, it’s a novel mix of the Newmarket, the Dublin, and, perhaps most curiously, the cutty itself, in the form of the latter’s signature, vestigial “foot.” This one is a grade A with impressively consistent flame grain. “The tradition continues” indeed.

This pipe is completely unsmoked.

 

Details:

Length: 6.2″ / 157.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.89 / 22.60mm

Bowl Depth: 1.62″ / 41.14mm

Weight: 1.5oz / 44g