Dunhill 1968 Tanshell C111 Sandblasted Churchwarden 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 Alfred Dunhill Ltd. has manufactured churchwarden shapes since at least the 1920s, they remain some of the rarest Dunhill pipes one can find (or not find, as is more often the case), whether new or estate. The forms these churchwardens have taken have differed depending on the era, in part because they have typically been modified renditions of other catalog shapes, which have themselves changed periodically throughout the last century. This one, for example, is a churchwarden-length rendition of a shape “111,” which would ordinarily be a classic, Anglo-French billiard of a group 3 size. But, as the additional “C” stamp before the shape code on this one indicates, its stummel was destined for greater things (as a side note, “C” has also, at times, been used to designate “Complimentary” pipes gifted by Alfred Dunhill Ltd. to business partners, though in those cases the “C” stamp is larger and positioned differently in relation to other nomenclature). In fact, the stummel used for this pipe was destined for very great things, being not only a churchwarden, but a Tanshell churchwarden, made from dense, Sardinian briar and lightly finished to fully showcase that superior briar and its hallmark rugged relief.

The condition is very good. Slight inner rim darkening, very minor handling marks, and some very light tooth chatter, but nonetheless impressively preserved.

Details:

Length: 10.4″ / 264.1mm

Bowl Width: 0.78 / 19.81mm

Bowl Depth: 1.58″ / 40.13mm

Weight: 1.1oz / 34g