Dunhill 2012 Shell Briar 4103 Sandblasted Billiard w/ Bamboo 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 and after the Second World War, pipe-makers across the world suffered a briar shortage. Different companies solved this problem in different ways, with one solution being to make the briar part of a pipe smaller (meaning less briar was used) and making up the rest of the length with some kind of extension. One of the extension materials used was a type of bamboo, which came from Asia. The shorthand for this type of bamboo (along with a variety of others) is whangee. Whangee originally comes from a Mandarin term, 黃藜, or huáng lí, in pinyin. Following the war, Dunhill began using bamboo shank extensions, with these pipes stamped with a “W” for precisely that. In later decades, Dunhill would continue to utilize bamboo in their pipe designs, though much less frequently, and without the Whangee appellation. This one, from 2012, features a two-knuckle bamboo shank extension that brings the 4103 shape to an almost Bing-like length, while also helping to keep the pipe at just over one ounce in weight. It also features astonishingly good ring grain sandblasting, to the point where I’m a little surprised that the pipe didn’t receive the RG designation.

The condition is very good. Some very minor wear to the rim and slight darkening to the bamboo shank extension, though this is natural as bamboo (like a number of other pipe making materials) tends to change in color over a pipe’s lifetime.
This pipe comes with its original box and sleeve.

 

Details:

Length: 6.5″ / 165.1mm

Bowl Width: 0.78 / 19.81mm

Bowl Depth: 1.63″ / 41.40mm

Weight: 1.1oz / 34g