Charatan’s Make Belvedere Free Shape 3 Smooth Dublin Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates

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 (who went on to work at Dunhill, before leaving again to start the Sasieni make), Dennis Marshall (previously of Barling, later of Milville), Dan Tennison, Stan Haney (later of Ashby Hall), and Ken Barnes and Barry Jones (later of James Upshall).

Charatan’s “Free Shape” pipes are quite rare. As far as designs went, they were somewhere between a standard Charatan and a freehand, but did not technically belong to either category. Unlike standard Charatan pipes, they were not made in accordance with the factory’s house shape charts; unlike Charatan freehands, they were not shaped by hand. Instead, they were machine-turned pipes of a non-standard shape, hence the “Free Shape” nomenclature. This one, for example, is not far off from many of the catalog shapes Charatan offered from the Lane era and beyond. With its diamond shank and tall, slightly rounded bowl, it’s almost like a cross between a “101” “Diamond Billiard” and a “323” “Winston,” though still very much distinct from either.

The condition is good. Minor inner rim charring and some residual oxidation on the mouthpiece.

Details:

Length: 6.1″ / 154.9mm

Bowl Width: 0.90 / 22.86mm

Bowl Depth: 1.53″ / 38.86mm

Weight: 1.5oz / 44g