James Upshall B Grade Group 6 Smooth Long Shank Bent Billiard Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

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. James Upshall pipes are no longer made, but their reputation as some of the finest hand-turned British pipes continues to endure.

As I’ve mentioned many times, long shank shapes were notably prominent in James Upshall’s output. And, as I’ve also mentioned, some of the reasons this are likely to have been the case have to do with the prevalence of similar shapes made during the “Reuben era” of F. Charatan & Son. The “Newmarket” is the most obvious example of this, being a shape designed by Reuben Charatan, who took inspiration from clay pipe designs, and which featured in James Upshall’s early catalogs under the very same name. Another reason long shank shapes may have held the place they did at James Upshall is that Kennedy Barnes was particularly fond of them, with the Canadian (what Reuben called a “Lumberman”) being his absolute favorite shape. But there is another reason why James Upshall may have incorporated long shanks as much as it did, one whose origins are not in Charatan’s Reuben era, but the Lane era that followed. After all, one of Herman Lane’s famous additions to Charatan pipes was the Double Comfort mouthpiece, a patented, double-stepped saddle cut that the majority of Charatan’s output included after Lane took the reins. One interesting consequence of this is that, as Charatan pipes got larger, their shanks got longer, presumably because the cut of a Double Comfort mouthpiece was either aesthetically or practically unsuited to such inordinate lengths.

Pipes like this James Upshall appear to have leaned into the design philosophy of Charatan under Herman Lane, albeit freed from the constraints of a Double Comfort mouthpiece. Taking the form of a distinctly long-shanked bent billiard, or brandy, it’s an impressive pipe and a worthy representation of the make’s pedigree. It should be, too, as it’s a “B” grade, one of the high-grades offered by the Tilshead workshop. Kennedy Barnes once remarked that the “B” was James Upshall’s answer to Charatan’s straight grain “Executive” grade, though as I’ve also said many times before, I do feel as though he was a little too modest sometimes. I’d say this one could pass for a “Selected” any day of the week, if not a “Supreme.”

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating.

Details:

Length: 6.6″ / 167.6mm

Bowl Width: 0.78 / 19.81mm

Bowl Depth: 1.65″ / 41.91mm

Weight: 2.7oz / 78g