Dunhill 1962 Bruyere 831 Smooth Cherrywood 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 “831” is a rare and, frankly, quite strange shape. But understand why, a brief look at its background context is required.

Around the 1920s, Dunhill began manufacturing a range of shapes that were not part of the standard catalog, designated “OD.” “OD” is thought to stand for “Own Design,” with the shapes themselves being beyond the norm for Dunhill pipes and indeed for Anglo-French briars in general. These shapes were produced in far fewer numbers than their standard counterparts, and the resulting pipes came to be graded with a letter. For example, there were ODA Dunhills, ODB, ODC, etc., ascending in quality and price as one progressed further down the alphabet. After the Second World War, Dunhill revised and formalized the OD range and, as part of this, assigned each OD shape a three-digit shape code beginning with “8.” Some post-war OD shapes were larger than average; some were unconventional in design; and some were a mixture of the two. For example, a Dunhill designated as an ODA 835 Shell Briar would be oversized billiard dressed in Dunhill’s signature burgundy sandblast; similarly, a finely grained, squat bulldog in a smooth, ruby red finish would be designated as a Bruyere ODB 838.

In Dunhill’s system, only the OD shapes have been designated with three-digit shape codes that began with an 8. Yet there are a small number of shapes with such codes that have been found without “OD” markings. In the post-war period, it appears, per Dunhill historian John Loring, that there have been around just three: the 802, the 821, and the 831. It remains a mystery as to why these shapes have been the subject of such irregularity in “OD” designation; it has simply become accepted that this irregularity was a feature in Dunhill’s production of OD shapes.

This 831 is a very beautiful, saxophone-like cherrywood sitter. The briar quality seems ODB-level to me, though, alas, it appears Dunhill did not assign it an OD grade for one reason or another. I suppose the pipe will have to speak for itself. Good thing it has plenty to say.

The condition is great. Minor inner rim darkening.

Details:

Length: 5.6″ / 142.2mm

Bowl Width: 0.73 / 18.54mm

Bowl Depth: 1.77″ / 44.95mm

Weight: 1.6oz / 46g