James Upshall (c.1989-95) B Grade Smooth Dublin w/ Cumberland Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates

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.

For the first decade of their existence, James Upshall pipes were almost exclusively fitted with vulcanite mouthpieces, and these mouthpieces were custom-fitted, rather than being fully hand-cut. Around the 1990s, however, the Tilshead workshop started changing its approach in that regard. From there on, one could not only buy James Upshall pipes with hand-cut mouthpieces, but hand-cut cumberland mouthpieces, too—albeit at a significant premium. Based on the absence of a size designation, this James Upshall looks to have been made during the first half of the 1990s, back when hand-cut mouthpieces were first being introduced, and marked as such (hence the “HC” stamp). As for the rest of the pipe, it’s a very large and very beautiful, plateaux-topped Dublin rendition from James Upshall’s “B” grade bracket. This was the workshop’s answer to the Lane era Charatan “Executive,” an exemplary straight grain pipe in the English freehand tradition, which essentially “lived on” through its James Upshall counterpart following the late 20th century decline of F. Charatan & Son.

The condition is very good. Minor rim darkening and some slight scratches on the bowl.

Details:

Length: 6.9″ / 175.2mm

Bowl Width: 0.99 / 25.14mm

Bowl Depth: 1.61″ / 40.89mm

Weight: 2.2oz / 64g