Dunhill 1932 R (Root Briar) 114 Smooth Billiard w/ Vernon Fitment 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.

Three things stand out about this Dunhill pipe: age, stem material, and fitment, all which intertwine in some way or another. Let’s start with age. Given its United States patent number, 1861910/32, and date code, 12, it’s a 1932 make, meaning it’s not far off 100 years old. That also makes it a very early example of the Dunhill Root Briar, which was introduced just a year beforehand, in 1931. As it is a very early Root Briar, the mouthpiece is not simply black vulcanite, but a special, red and black brindled hard rubber, Today we call that “Cumberland” (also because of Dunhill), but before it had that name, it was also referred to as a “bowling ball” mouthpiece, as, at the time, ten-pin and duckpin bowling balls were made from a similar hard rubber (unlike today, where polyester is the norm). Ultimately, black vulcanite would be adopted as standard for Root Briar pipes, but that was after this one was made. That’s two interesting things down, and the third is found right between the Root Briar-finished bowl and the “bowling ball” mouthpiece: a “Vernon fitment.” Fitments were a big thing in the late 19th and early to mid-20th centuries, and the problem of how best to safely and securely attach a bowl to a mouthpiece was far less settled than we’re used to today. One of Alfred Dunhill’s relatively short-lived experiments in this context was the use of a specially designed spigot and socket fitment, which was invented by Alfred’s son Vernon Dunhill (hence the colloquial names “Vernon fitment,” “Vernon fitting,” and “Vernon tenon”). Interestingly, there exist two versions of this arrangement, some with the tenon mounted to the shank, and others with the tenon mounted to the mouthpiece, as with this one. Either way, Vernon’s invention was short-lived and only used on Dunhill pipes for around a decade. It was patented in the UK in 1931 and in the US the next year, in 1932, before disappearing around the time of the Second World War. On a last note, as this pipe features the US patent we can narrow down the timeframe of its manufacture to an even narrower window than most Dunhills. as the US patent was granted on June 7th, 1932, the pipe will have been made not just in 1932, but specifically in the second half of 1932. What difference does that six months make? None, really. I just felt like pointing it out.

The condition is fair but, for a 90+ year old pipe, not bad. Some rim charring, minor handling marks, slight finish fading (though legible) and stem slightly over-buffed.

Details:

Length: 6.2″ / 157.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.76 / 19.30mm

Bowl Depth: 1.32″ / 33.52mm

Weight: 0.9oz / 26g