James Upshall Empire Series Executive Magnum Smooth Bent Dublin w/ Cumberland 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. Sadly, James Upshall pipes are no longer made, but their reputation as some of the finest British handmade pipes lives on.

While the “Executive” was a grade originally used by Charatan for their high-end straight grain pipes, the James Upshall workshop also employed the Executive as a grade for their own pipes. This makes plenty of sense given that James Upshall’s founders all started out their careers in pipe making at Charatan during the Reuben and Lane years. The similarities don’t end there, though. James Upshall’s Executive belonged to the workshop’s “Empire Series”, reserved for magnum-sized pipes. Each Empire grade corresponded with one of the grades used for standard-sized pipes. The Empire “Tradition” was a magnum “A” grade, “Old England” was a magnum “P,” and the Executive was a magnum “B.” James Upshall’s B grades were, according to Kennedy Barnes, roughly equivalent to Charatan’s “Executive” as far as quality went, so a James Upshall Executive could reasonably be considered equivalent to a Charatan Executive Extra Large grade—or, perhaps more accurately, a Charatan Executive Extra, Extra Large. After all, James Upshall pipes already had an Extra Large size group, the “Ex.L” which was applicable to pipes with the workshop’s letter grades. The Empire series, on the other hand, often dwarfed the Ex.Ls and, by extension, even Charatan’s oversized freehand pipes.

As regards the design of this one, it is essentially a very large Dublin, one whose shaping would be better compared to the pipes of Charatan during the Reuben era than the Lane ones. In other words, it’s eminently classical, with just a touch of extra suppleness afforded by its hand-turned manufacture. On the other hand, it also features something that would not become especially common for English pipes until the later decades of the 20th century, a hand-cut cumberland stems. These were far from standard at the Tilshead workshop either, though they were offered at certain points in time—at a premium, of course.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating. Some very light scratches on the edge of the rim, though nothing major.

Details:

Length: 7.5″ / 190.5mm

Bowl Width: 1.01 / 25.65mm

Bowl Depth: 2.11″ / 53.59mm

Weight: 3.5oz / 100g