Charatans Make Executive Extra Large Smooth Dublin 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.

While Denmark was having its ‘freehand’ moment in the 1960s and ’70s, England was having its own, largely due to Charatan’s home-grown carvers. This one is particularly impressive in its execution. Its bowl is draped in thousands of tight, vertical straight grain patterns, sometimes referred to as ‘angel hair,’ which is all the more of an achievement given how large the bowl, and the rest of the pipe, is. The pipe reminds me of a lone Ashby-Hall pipe we had in once, carved by Stan Haney. Haney was considered the very best of Charatan’s freehand carvers by Barry Jones and Ken Barnes. Perhaps this is one of his. From the nomenclature, it looks to be late Lane Era, which makes chronological sense.

The condition is near-mint. The pipe appears to be practically unsmoked, though I’ll put it down as ‘pre-smoked’ and err on the side of caution.

Details:

Length: 7.2″

Bowl Width: 27.6mm

Bowl Depth: 1.9″

Weight: 4.4oz / 126g