Dunhill 1996 Root Briar 4203 Smooth Billiard 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.

During the 1970s, Alfred Dunhill Ltd. began systematizing its pipe designs in a way that is quite remarkable, and to an extent that simply hasn’t been matched anywhere else. Up to this point, the company had manufactured hundreds of individually numbered, or lettered (sometimes both), shapes, just like any other pipe company. A system like this is good for variety, especially if one intends to expand it as time goes on, but it’s also painfully inefficient and difficult to navigate, even for insiders or dedicated enthusiasts (compare, for example, the Pipedia entries for “Dunhill Shapes List” and “Dunhill Shape Chart” for an idea of how messy the former looks in retrospect). Dunhill’s solution was to take the brand’s most popular designs, divide those designs into discrete design elements, (such as a size approximation, a bowl shape, or a specific stem cut) and to assign each element a number. After a few years of ironing out the kinks, the result was a system in which each shape code was in fact a four-digit string of identifiers for the shape’s constitutive parts. A group 5, tapered stem Dublin, for example, would be a 5105, i.e., 4-1-05; a group 4, nosewarmer-length prince, on the other hand, would be a 4907, or 4-9-07. It’s genius, really, allowing for a wide variety of designs through a mix-and-match approach, while also being very precise and easy to utilize. This particular pipe is a 4204, i.e., a group 4, saddle stem billiard—a classic in Dunhill’s portfolio, as it is across the Anglo-French tradition, refined to an almost Platonic perfection. The pipe is dressed in Dunhill’s Root Briar finish, a similarly classic, natural finish intended to showcase superior briar patterns, which this one certainly does.

The condition is good. Some wear to the inner rim, chamber slightly over-reamed, and very minor tooth chatter.

Details:

Length: 5.7″ / 144.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.86 / 21.84mm

Bowl Depth: 1.51″ / 38.35mm

Weight: 1.0oz / 30g