Charatan’s Make Reuben Era Selected 93 Smooth Dublin 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.

Reuben Charatan was the second to helm the venerable F. Charatan & Son, after his father, Frederick Charatan. While the latter first brought all stages of pipe manufacture under one roof, and while it was Reuben’s successor, Herman Lane, who catapulted the company into international pipe superstardom, the so-called “Reuben era” (or “Reuben’s era”) was no less than revolutionary for Charatan and for pipes in general. Under Reuben’s tenure, the first Charatan freehand pipes were made and, equally important, Reuben was a pioneer in championing the “straight grain pipe.” In fact, Reuben was so passionate and exacting when it came to Charatan’s straight grain pipes that, for most of his time running F. Charatan & Son, he took sole responsibility for turning bowls for the company’s straight grain grades (making them far rarer than other grades in Charatan’s output). The Selected was one such grade and the second-highest available for the majority of the Reuben era. This Selected grade shape 93 “Medium Small Dublin” (Charatan’s term) may well have been turned by Reuben himself, though regardless of its maker it certainly exhibits the “outstanding” grain mentioned in contemporaneous promotional materials.

Though the pipe does feature the circled “L” stamp of Lane Limited, it is not, as might first be assumed, a “Lane era” pipe. As the pipe has a tapered stem, rather than the Double Comfort that was standard from the Lane era onward, and as the pipe’s shape code, 93, features neither a “DC” (for Double Comfort) nor an “X” (for non-Double Comfort mouthpieces), it will have been made prior to Herman Lane acquiring F. Charatan & Son at the beginning of the 1960s. The Lane Limited logo instead indicates that this pipe was made for export to the US market, where Herman Lane held exclusive distribution rights. The pipe will therefore be from some time between 1955 and 1960.

The condition is great. Minor inner rim darkening and a couple of small, superficial scratches on the bowl.

Details:

Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.88 / 22.35mm

Bowl Depth: 1.82″ / 46.22mm

Weight: 1.6oz / 46g