James Upshall A Grade EXL Smooth Canadian 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 with another James Upshall pipe listed recently, this one combines, in a very Charatan-esque manner, two types of shapes that had a special place in the Tilshead workshop. One was, of course, the Dublin, the favorite shape of Reuben Charatan and a shape that Barry Jones, who trained under Reuben himself, was a genuine master of. Having turned thousands of Dublin shapes in his career at Charatan and James Upshall, Jones knew not only how to make a good Dublin, but also how to make a Dublin interesting. This brings us to the second type of shape this design plays into: the long shank. Barnes’ favorite shape was the Canadian, and Jones was no stranger to long shank shapes himself (the James Upshall workshop offered its own rendition of the Charatan Newmarket, after all). Thus, in this A grade we find a nice blending of the Dublin and the Canadan, adding a little bit of the pot’s stoutness as well. As a last point, this pipe is also grouped within James Upshall’s Ex.L output, though it should satisfy both those who prefer their pipes large and indeed those who prefer a more standard length. The Tilshead workshop’s size group system revolved around bowl size, hence why this one, even though it is just over 6 inches in length, leapt over its lengthier siblings into the leagues of the Extra Large.

This pipe is completely unsmoked.

 

Details:

Length: 6.1″ / 154.9mm

Bowl Width: 1.01 / 25.65mm

Bowl Depth: 1.96″ / 49.78mm

Weight: 2.4oz / 70g