James Upshall G Grade ExL Smooth Freehand Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates

Description

ames 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.

While the James Upshall workshop predominantly used letter grades on their pipes, these letters did not ascend or descend alphabetically in relation to the pipe’s stature. In other words, it wasn’t a case of grade A, then B, then C, and so on; it was S, A, P, B, G, E, X, and XX (as well as a parallel Empire Series for magnum pipes). This was a consequence of the grading system evolving over time, rather than beginning fully planned out, making it a little unintuitive. One division was clear though: S, A, and P were “standard” grades, whereas B, G, E, X, and XX were “high grades.” Shortly before his untimely passing Kennedy Barnes offered a very helpful approximation as to how some of these grades compared to the grades of his former employer, Charatan. G grade James Upshalls were, according to Barnes, comparable to the Supreme grades he’d worked on at his former employer, during its celebrated Lane era (so-called because this was the period when Charatan was owned by Herman Lane and Lane Ltd.).
Interestingly, this G grade James Upshall appears to lean far closer to the Danish freehand style than most others from the Tilshead workshop (though this is not entirely unheard of, especially given the intense rivalry between English and Danish pipe makers in the post-war decades). It almost looks like an early WO Larsen Straight Grain, such as the Fancy models Sven Knudsen worked on. It certainly has the briar for it.

The condition is very good. Some inner rim darkening and minor handling marks.

Details:

Length: 6.7″ / 170.1mm

Bowl Width: 0.94 / 23.87mm

Bowl Depth: 1.81″ / 45.97mm

Weight: 2.1oz / 62g