Charatans Make 4420 Sandblasted Straight Billiard Estate Briar Pipe

Description

While Dunhill may be Britain’s most famous pipe brand, Charatan is not only older, but has the honor of being the first to have made its pipes entirely in-house. ‘Charatan’s Make’ referred to the fact that, at a time when other pipe companies were sourcing stummels and stems carved from other companies before assembling them in their factories and workshops, Charatan made every part of their pipes on the Charatan premises. So began a legacy of high-quality pipe-making under the Charatan name, one whose employees, at one time or another, included Joel Sasieni, and Ken Barnes and Barry Jones of James Upshall fame.

This pipe is quite interesting. Those with a keen eye will note that the pipe has the ‘£’/’L’ logo common to all pipes made during the ‘Lane era’ of Charatan. This was the period, following the death of Reuben Charatan and the end of the ‘Reuben era,’ from 1961 to 1976, when Charatan was purchased and helmed by Lane Ltd. But there are two connected things on this pipe that are not found on Lane era Charatans: the stem and the shape code. Because most Lane era pipes had Lane’s proprietary ‘Double Comfort’ saddle stems, which this pipe doesn’t have, and because Lane era pipes that didn’t have a Double Comfort stem had an ‘X’ after their shape code, which this pipe doesn’t have either. So, what’s the answer to this mystery? Well, while Lane Ltd didn’t take the helm of Charatan until 1961, they did import Charatan pipes in the United States from 1955 onwards, and those pipes were stamped with the Lane logo. I am therefore led to conclude that this is a Reuben era pipe that was imported by Lane Ltd for sale in the United States. That would certainly explain the craggy sandblast typical to Reuben era pipes.

The condition is great. There’s a little residual oxidation on the pipe’s ebonite stem and its Charatan ‘CP’ stamp appears to have rubbed off, but Reuben era stem stamps were notoriously fine and prone to flaking and effacement.

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.84 / 21.3mm

Bowl Depth: 1.77″ / 44.9mm

Weight: 1.8oz / 52g