Dunhill 1975 Root Briar 120 (Large) Smooth Bent Billiard Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates

Description

To veteran pipe smokers, Dunhill needs no introduction. Beginning in 1907, Alfred Dunhill began selling Dunhill pipes at the tobacconist shop he owned on London’s Duke Street. Very quickly, these pipes gained the reputation of being the ‘Rolls-Royce’ of pipes due to how expertly crafted they were. Today, Dunhill is likely Britain’s most famous pipe manufacturer, and continues to produce some of the most treasured pipes a smoker can buy.

A staple within Dunhill’s catalog between the 1920s and 1970s, the 120 bent billiard is a bona fide classic in pipe design, both in Dunhill’s portfolio and pipe making writ large. But it’s also quite a strange design, with more to its recurrence in Dunhill’s production than first meets the eye. John Loring is, as ever, an excellent resource on this, and in particular his essay “The Atypical LC” from The Pipe Smoker’s Ephemeris sheds fascinating insights on the 120 and other, similar, Dunhill 3/4 bent billiards. While even factory shapes such as Dunhill’s show some variation in size both within the same production cycle and across longer periods in time, the 120, not unlike the LC or EC Quaint shapes, has sometimes varied significantly in its dimensions. The basic design of the 120 is not completely unlike the LC, with both featuring a supple swan neck curvature as their centerpiece. But the 120 is typically much smaller than an LC, with a length of around 6 inches, compared to the latter’s, which comes in between 6 and 1/2 inches and 7 inches. But this is not always the case and, as can be seen here, there have been a few examples of 120 shapes that have come much closer to their Quaint counterpart. This 1975 version is significantly longer and taller than 120 shapes we’ve had in the past, with proportions closer to the 1920s versions (which Loring sometimes referred to as “120LCs”) than any contemporaneous or near-contemporaneous ones. As if that wasn’t appealing enough, the bowl is swirling with flame grain, rightly earning the pipe its Root Briar finish.

The condition is very good. Chamber slightly over-reamed and a few small, light scratches and scuffs on the bowl.

 

Details:

Length: 6.5″ / 165.1mm

Bowl Width: 0.87 / 22.09mm

Bowl Depth: 1.99″ / 50.54mm

Weight: 2.3oz / 66g