Dunhill 2019 Shell Briar Collector HT Partially Sandblasted 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 technically not the first “hand-turned” pipes in the make’s history,* Dunhill’s Collector series was introduced in 1978 as a chance for Dunhill’s craftsmen to show off what they too could do when using “freehand” carving techniques. The world had, after all, just seen a boom in both Danish and English “freehand” pipes (the latter coming from Charatan), so it was only natural that a company with Dunhill’s prestige should follow suit. One key difference, however, is that Dunhill’s freehand output, via the Collector series, was far more limited in quantity than its contemporaries, and indeed still is.

This particular example is a relatively recent instance of the Collector, and while it is a hand-turned pipe, the design makes sure to not stray too far from classically English shaping conventions. Taking the form of a long, narrow-shanked, and slightly stacked billiard, the pipe is surprisingly lightweight for its stature—again, in keeping with Dunhill’s established sense of proportion. The pipe wears Dunhill’s signature, dark burgundy sandblast finish, which, in this instance, is expressed in a wonderfully craggy relief, one reminiscent of the pipes made during Dunhill’s famed patent years.

The condition is very good. Slight rim darkening and finish fading, but the pipe has nonetheless been well preserved.

*Alfred Dunhill did briefly experiment with hand-turned pipes during the earliest decades of the make.

Details:

Length: 6.6″ / 167.6mm

Bowl Width: 0.94 / 23.87mm

Bowl Depth: 1.71″ / 43.43mm

Weight: 1.4oz / 40g