Charatan’s Make (c.1976-79) Executive Smooth Cup and Saucer Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates

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 (later of Dunhill, then Sasieni fame), Stan Haney (later of Ashby Hall), Dennis Marshall (later of Milville), and Ken Barnes and Barry Jones (later of James Upshall).

As far as Ken Barnes’ account went, the very first “freehand” shape produced at Charatan was made by a very young Barry Jones, who did so simply on a whim, rather than ever being told to. As the story goes, Jones was on his lunch break and was casually examining stummels that had been consigned to the “rejects” bin—i.e., briar that had been shaped to fit Charatan’s catalog of standard designs, but which had to be abandoned due to the discovery of significant flaws in the wood. Upon picking up a large stummel laden with sandpits (presumed to have been for a shape 44 “Giant Bent”), Jones got the idea to try to sand away the affected parts of the briar and see what he was left with. What he was left with was a stummel with much of its upper bowl intact, but whose base had been mostly shorn away, creating something that looked like a “cup” resting on a “saucer.” Jones’ colleagues encouraged him to finish the pipe, which he did with help from Joan Nicholson, one of his seniors. When then-owner and foreman Reuben Charatan saw the pipe, instead of being angry at Jones for insubordination, he was impressed. When Charatan took the pipe to the company’s nearby storefront, the manager there was equally impressed, asking for a dozen of them. Over the years, the “Cup and Saucer” remained a recurrent motif in the pipes put out by Charatan’s quickly established freehand workshop, so long as briar permitted. Based on the nomenclature, this one looks to have been made some time after 1965, and based on the lack of a Lane Ltd. logo and the style of the stem logo that is present, I’d estimate it to be a late 1970s production—i.e., during the first years Alfred Dunhill Ltd. owned F. Charatan & Son, but before the former made significant changes to the manufacturing processes used by the latter. As an Executive, it is furthermore one of the make’s higher-end straight grain grades, something readily apparent from even a brief inspection.

The condition is very good. Minor finish fading and chamber slightly over-reamed.

Details:

Length: 6.6″ / 167.6mm

Bowl Width: 1.02 / 25.90mm

Bowl Depth: 1.81″ / 45.97mm

Weight: 1.6oz / 46g