Dunhill 1925 (John Loring Collection) Shell Briar Magnum LC Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates

Description

To veteran pipe smokers, Dunhill needs no introduction. Beginning in 1907, Alfred Dunhill began selling Dunhill pipes at the tobacconist shop he owned on London’s Duke Street. Very quickly, these pipes gained the reputation of being the ‘Rolls-Royce’ of pipes due to how expertly crafted they were. Today, Dunhill is likely Britain’s most famous pipe manufacturer, and continues to produce some of the most treasured pipes a smoker can buy.

Though Dunhill pipes have typically been on the smaller side—at least, in comparison to the countless makes that have emerged since Alfred Dunhill founded his company—there are a few notable exceptions that have been much larger, compared both to their contemporary rivals and indeed to most pipes today. Dunhill’s magnum-sized pipes are singularly notable among these atypical offerings, not only for their size, but for their role in kick-starting the “estate pipes” trade in the 1970s:

“a strange new hobby was developing, ‘used briar pipe collecting’, with Dunhill pipes the crown jewels of those pioneer American collections. Soon there were pipe shows, mail order lists, evenings on the telephone in ‘hot pursuit’ and even excursions to England to salvage previously smoked pipes from the dustbins. Hundreds, even thousands of dollars were paid for used, quickly renamed “Estate” Dunhills with premium prices being paid for the largest and oldest.”

This account from the late Dunhill historian John Loring—who was himself not immune to the allure of such “crown jewels”—has become even more true since it was written, in part due to expanded global trade networks, the rise of consumer internet use, and the emergence of e-commerce. And among Dunhill’s sought-after, older and extra large pipes, there is one shape that has emerged as the crown jewel of many a collection, and indeed a white whale for collections where it is absent: the LC. Having been conceived in the very early 20th century, manufactured sporadically, and having disappeared in the century’s later decades, the tall-bowled, swan-neck, LC bent billiard is perhaps the most iconic design in Dunhill’s history. Pipe smokers and pipe makers alike treat it with reverence, with the latter commonly using it to prove their worth, given how difficult it is to accurately reproduce. The steep angle of the stem and shank are a particular challenge, so much so that the LC never carried Dunhill’s patented inner tube, as it simply would not fit in the shape’s draft hole (instead, as can be seen here, as well as on other LC iterations, the shape featured a unique, funneled tenon).

This one, dressed in Dunhill’s legendary Shell Briar finish (known at the time as simply the “Shell”), has been remarkably preserved in all senses bar one. There’s some minor finish fading and slight rim darkening, which is very typical, but most importantly, the usual Dunhill stamping on the underside of the pipe is all but effaced. The question, then, is of how we can know that this is a Dunhill, let alone one from 1925. One very simple answer is because this was verified by John Loring himself. When research was undertaken to compare this pipe to other magnum and LC-shaped Dunhill pipes, one valuable source of information was the Pipedia article “Loring’s Dunhill Collection,” which contains photographs taken in 2009, shortly before his passing. One photograph in particular stood out in the Dunhill LC Bents & a small Magnum section: that of a “1925 Dunhill Shell Small Magnum,” which can be viewed below.

https://pipedia.org/wiki/Loring%27s_Dunhill_Collection
https://pipedia.org/wiki/File:D25-LC-s-magnum.jpg

Sandblasted pipes are a lot like fingerprints. While there are similarities between them, no two are alike, as no two blocks of briar are alike. Using image layering software, we were able to determine that the 1925 Magnum in Loring’s photographed collection was the exact same pipe we have here. A conversation with Rich Esserman, a personal friend of Loring’s and a known extra large pipe aficionado, further confirmed the pipe as having once been Loring’s. The pipe itself also gives solid indications as to its veracity as a Dunhill, most notably in its Dunhill-branded, patented “Ventage” fitted case (Ventage being a case featuring ventilation ducts for heat and smoke to exit the case after the pipe’s use), the make’s famous “White Spot” and its correspondence in size and hue to early interwar pipes, and the aforementioned, unique, funneled tenon. As for how such a pipe came to lose its stampings, Esserman suggested that this may have occurred during an in-house refurbishment by the Alfred Dunhill company itself, who noted that “the nomenclature mattered little to Dunhill after the pipe was sold.” Hindsight is 20/20, it seems.

Details:

Length: 9.5″ / 241.3mm

Bowl Width: 0.97 / 24.63mm

Bowl Depth: 2.14″ / 54.35mm

Weight: 5.2oz / 150g