James Upshall Empire Ambassador Rhodesian w/Cumberland 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.

The grading system used by James Upshall can be a little confusing at times. After all, some pipes were graded with a letter (e.g., P, G, E), some with a word that gestured at the finish (e.g., Bark, Sandblast), and some with words that might not seem to follow any particular rubric (e.g., Acclaim, Old England). There were other grades and one-off series, but we’ll pass over those for the moment. In terms of the more consistently used grades, these can be divided into two major groups: pipes of a standard size, and pipes of a magnum size, also known as the Empire Series. The pipes in each group were graded and, crucially, the grades used for the former correlated to grades used for the latter. A “Tradition” was a magnum “A” grade, an “Old England” was a magnum “P,” and so on. As might be expected, this very stunning and very large Rhodesian was one of James Upshall’s Empire Series, earning the “Ambassador” grade. That meant that it was a magnum-sized “G” grade, one of the highest grades offered by the workshop throughout its lifetime. G grades were rare, and Ambassador grades were even rarer, due to the size and quality of the briar blocks needed to make them. For the sake of comparison, Ken Barnes recounted that James Upshall’s “G” grade was roughly equivalent to Charatan’s Supreme, one of the latter’s straight grain grades. One might infer that the Ambassador was, therefore, more like a Supreme Extra Large. On a final note, this Ambassador has a hand cut cumberland stem, a rare and premium addition within the James Upshall catalog.

This pipe is completely unsmoked. It comes with its original sleeve.

 

Details:

Length: 7″ / 177.8mm

Bowl Width: 0.92 / 23.36mm

Bowl Depth: 1.85″ / 46.99mm

Weight: 2.6oz / 74g