Charatan’s Make Reuben Era (1955-60) Belvedere 12 Smooth “Large Billiard” Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

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 (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).

Charatan is largely known today for its “freehand” pipes, i.e., pipes of a very modern design, created using very modern approaches to shaping and general manufacture. The company still produced mostly traditional catalog shapes alongside its freehands, but it is the latter that are most widely known, owing to their status as pioneers of the art within the English context, their meteoric rise under the stewardship of Herman Lane and Lane Ltd., and the sheer mastery of briar grain that they so frequently represented. Prior to England’s freehand revolution, F. Charatan & Son was still known for its “Perfection in Pipes,” as the tagline went, but these pipes were far more classically inclined. Reuben Charatan, the second in his family to steward the firm, liked his Apples, billiards, cutties, and, of course, his Dublins, and Charatan’s shape charts from his tenure reflected that fact.

Shape charts from the “Reuben era” of 1910-60 also reflected the shaping conventions of the day. It may seem difficult to believe for our modern eyes, but the shape “12,” seen here, was Charatan’s flagship “Large Billiard” during that time. This particular example will have been made around the mid- to late 1950s, as while it does bear the Lane Ltd. circled “L” logo, it features a shape code sans any reference to the Double Comfort “DC” mouthpieces that became standard after Reuben passed and Lane took over the firm at the beginning of the 1960s (while non-Double Comfort mouthpieces were occasionally used during the Lane years, on catalog shapes, codes were stamped with an “X” suffix). This was typical of pipes made during Reuben’s last years, as the “L” logo denoted pipes destined for export to the US, where Lane Ltd. had exclusive distribution rights. It is dressed in Reuben’s ruby red Belvedere finish.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating. Some slight handling marks. It also comes with its original box, though do note that the box is, understandably, quite time worn.

Details:

Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.76 / 19.30mm

Bowl Depth: 1.55″ / 39.37mm

Weight: 1.4oz / 40g