James Upshall P Grade L2 95 Canadian Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates

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.

While their former employers at Charatan were great fans of Dublins, the Canadian was one of the favorite shapes of Barry Jones and—even more so—Ken Barnes. It was such a favorite that, around 1986, a small project was devised to produce extraordinarily large Canadian shapes. Pipes belonging to this project can be identified by the presence of unique nomenclature not found on any other James Upshall pipe, represented here by the stamp “L295”. As Pete Sieger of Marble Arch (a former James Upshall distributor) has explained, the stamp is actually two stamps: “L2” designating a size group (ranging from L2 to L4) and “95” designating the length of the shank (here, 95mm). At the time of sale, these pipes were more expensive than the standard P grade and only a few of these pipes were ever made.

The condition is good. Some inner rim charring, chamber slightly over-reamed, and some handling marks, but a treat for collectors nonetheless.

 

Details:

Length: 7.5″ / 190.5mm

Bowl Width: 0.92 / 23.36mm

Bowl Depth: 1.79″ / 45.46mm

Weight: 1.7oz / 50g