James Upshall Bark Group 6 Rusticated Diamond Shank 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.

It would seem what, while you can take the man out of Charatan, you can’t take Charatan out of the man. I say this because the basic design of the James Upshall pipe seen here is pure Charatan. While working at the latter, Barry Jones will have turned hundreds of Charatan “Diamond Billiard” and “Bent Pot” shapes, both of which had a diamond shank and distinctly proportioned stem (on account of the Lane era requiring that extra bit of length to allow for a Double Comfort bit) and indeed many a freehand with similar faceting. On the other hand, this one wears an enjoyably tactile rustication as part of its finish, which Charatan rarely used (typically on their aptly-named Rarity line pipes).
When James Upshall was founded, the company (Tilshead Pipe Co.) didn’t make rusticated pipes either. But, in the later decades of the 20th century, a strong case was being made by other English workshops, such as Ashton and Ferndown, that there was nothing stopping a sandblasted or a rusticated pipe from being handmade and high-grade—though in the case of the latter, this was something the Italians had known for even longer. The James Upshall Bark finish followed in this vein, and was often curiously similar to Ferndown’s finish of the same name. Given that Les Wood and Barry Jones were good friends (and still are, last I checked), I have wondered if something of the Woods’ approach to finishing rubbed off on Jones.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating.

 

Details:

Length: 6.4″ / 162.5mm

Bowl Width: 0.84 / 21.33mm

Bowl Depth: 1.50″ / 38.10mm

Weight: 1.5oz / 44g