Dunhill 1958 Tanshell ES “Extra Long Shank” Sandblasted Canadian 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.

Dunhill’s ES was one of their “Quaint Shapes,” those being shapes that were not produced as regularly as other catalog shapes, instead only being made when a given block of briar seemed especially well suited for it. Among Dunhill’s Quaint Shapes are some of the make’s most iconic designs, such as the O squat bulldog and the LC swan-neck billiard, along with a number of lesser-known, but nonetheless rare and quite coveted ones, such as the CK author/Rhodesian or the US “beehive.” The, ES, on the other hand, might at first seem quite unremarkable. But this is not the case, especially for Dunhill historians. John Loring, for example, wrote a whole article on the matter of the ES (“The Extra Long Shank Dunhill Canadian”), in addition to its mentions in other articles dedicated to Dunhill’s various “long shank” shapes. Thought to stand for something like “Extended Shank,” the ES was indeed a Canadian shape with a longer than average shank compared to Dunhill’s other Canadians, such as the 335 or the EC (another Quaint). But it would seem, as Loring notes, that the proportions of the ES could vary significantly. Most crucially, for Loring, between its debut in the 1910s and retirement in the 1970s, one could divide Dunhill ES renditions into two groups: pipes with a shank of approximately 3 inches in length (from the back of the bowl to the beginning of the mouthpiece), which were quite typical; and pipes with a shank of 4 inches in length or longer, which were much rarer. Loring chalked this up to being a product of the opposing forces of consumer demand and material constraints; pipe smokers who favor Canadian shapes like them long, but the larger a pipe is in any direction, the greater the chance of discovering a disqualifying flaw when turning the stummel. The “typical” ES thus exhibited a shank of approximately 3 inches in length but, on those rare occasions where nature smiled upon Dunhill’s workers, a longer ES might just be born. This craggy Tanshell from 1958 is exactly that—an “extra long shank Dunhill Canadian,” as Loring had put it.

The condition is good. Some general wear to the rim, some finish fading and slight disocoloration, and minor tooth marks.

 

Details:

Length: 7.0″ / 177.8mm

Bowl Width: 0.78 / 19.81mm

Bowl Depth: 1.62″ / 41.14mm

Weight: 1.1oz / 32g