Charatan’s Make c. 1961-5 Executive Extra Large Smooth Freehand 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, and Ken Barnes and Barry Jones of James Upshall fame.

While pipe makers the world over today extol the virtues of a “straight grain” pipe, the idea that such a patterning of the briar is something special, prestigious, and valuable is not as old as one might think. While briar pipes have been manufactured for approximately two centuries, it is only in the last 100 years or so that widespread regard for straight grain in that manufacture would emerge. And a significant contributor to the latter were the pipes of F. Charatan & Son. More specifically, Reuben Charatan, the second-generation owner and manager of the Charatan family firm was a very vocal proponent of straight grain pipes as aesthetically and practically superior to others, and indeed was so strict about the standard to which a properly “straight grain” pipe must adhere that, for most of his time at Charatan’s helm, only he was permitted to turn the bowls for its straight grain pipes. In the late 1950s, this would begin to change, with the creation of the Charatan freehand workshop, staffed by Reuben’s protégés; in the early 1960s, after Reuben’s passing and the acquisition of F. Charatan & Son by Herman Lane, with the freehand workshop taking the “straight grain pipe” to heights even Reuben could not have conceived of. This particular pipe comes from that latter period, being an example of one of its straight grain grades, the Executive Extra Large. True to its grading, it is indeed a quite spectacular, fanning specimen of briar root’s natural, flaring, vertical patterning, and it is most certainly a big pipe, coming in at nearly 8 inches in length and close to 4 in bowl height. The dating of 1961-65 is based on the “MADE BY HAND” nomenclature and proprietary Double Comfort stem. Though the pipe lacks the Lane Ltd. “L” trademark of this first Lane era, such an absence is not uncommon, while the “MADE BY HAND” stamp is typical of hand-turned Charatan pipes made between 1958 and 1965 and not found on pipes made after (when “MADE BY HAND/Made by Hand | In | City of London” became standard instead).

The condition is very good. Minor inner rim darkening and slight handling marks on the bowl.

 

Details:

Length: 7.8″ / 198.1mm

Bowl Width: 1.11 / 28.19mm

Bowl Depth: 2.49″ / 63.24mm

Weight: 3.8oz / 110g