James Upshall A Grade EXL Smooth Standing Dublin Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

James Upshall was, along with Ferndown and Ashton, part of a new wave of British hand-made, high-grade pipes in the late 20th century, with their founders largely coming from previous positions in the factories of companies such as Dunhill and Charatan. James Upshall was founded in 1978 by Barry Jones and Ken Barnes, both of whom had previously worked for Charatan and who had worked their way up to being carvers Charatan’s higher-end, non-standard shapes. Jones and Barnes’ pipes quickly grew to being something of a status symbol, and were enjoyed by King Hussein of Jordan, Anwar Sadat, Bing Crosby, Yul Brynner, Robert Wagner and Tom Selleck. The company also made house-brand pipes for Astleys in London. Sadly, James Upshall pipes are no longer made, but their reputation as some of the finest hand-turned British pipes lives on.

While Barry Jones has rightly been hailed as one of Britain’s best freehand pipe makers as regards his ingenuity in forms and mastery of briar grain, it’s important to remember that he was astoundingly technically proficient, which is a good deal of why he was able to create such novel, beautiful shapes. The engineering behind this standing Dublin impressive to say the least, especially when taking into account just how large a pipe it is. One could reasonably liken it to a cavalier shape of sorts, though its overall design leans much closer to the organic, like a dancer en pointe or a long-necked bird—a heron, perhaps, in contrast to the swan seen in the Dunhill LC, and similar.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating. Some minor handling marks, but nothing major by any measure. Note that while the pipe does stand on its own, I would not treat it as an ordinary sitter, as it is very carefully balanced and less sure-footed than, say, a poker.

 

Details:

Length: 8.0″ / 203.2mm

Bowl Width: 0.98 / 24.89mm

Bowl Depth: 1.87″ / 47.49mm

Weight: 2.4oz / 70g