Charatans Make Lane era Special 3102DC Smooth Billiard 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.

This particular Charatan is from what is known as the Lane era, i.e., 1961-1976. This was a period during which Charatan was acquired by Herman Lane and produced what are considered to have been Charatan’s best pipes. The pipe itself is a rendition of the traditional saddle billiard shape, albeit with the addition of Lane’s proprietary double comfort ebonite stem. It wears a simple, light brown stain, which does well to accentuate the natural bird’s-eye grain patterns around its bowl. In short, it is an excellent, classic English pipe.

The condition is excellent too, with an ebonite stem free of bite marks or abrasions, the Charatan nomenclature remaining crisp, and only minimal darkening on the inner lip of the pipe’s rim.

Details:

Length: 5.8″ / 147.3mm

Bowl Width: 0.88 / 22.35mm

Bowl Depth: 1.54″ / 39.116mm

Weight: 1.5oz / 44g