James Upshall Empire Series Executive Magnum Smooth Cup and Saucer 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. James Upshall pipes are no longer made, but their reputation as some of the finest hand-turned British pipes continues to endure.

The “Cup and Saucer” is an old genre of Charatan shapes, one that would make periodic appearances over the lifetime of its freehand workshop. The very first, however, was carved by a young Barry Jones, back when he was still an apprentice under Reuben Charatan. The story goes that, during a lunch break, and purely on a whim, Jones took an unfinished Charatan shape 44 “Giant Bent” that had ended up in the “rejects” bin upon the discovery of its many sandpits. Jones had the idea to simply sand off as much of the pitted briar as possible and see what kind of pipe could be salvaged from it. The result was something that looked like a “cup” resting on a “saucer.” Jones’s colleagues were impressed, as were Reuben Charatan and his store manager, who requested a dozen for him to sell.

Jones’s “Cup and Saucer” was the first freehand turned at Charatan and was pivotal in the emergence of such pipes in English pipe manufacture. And when Jones left Charatan and moved on to James Upshall, he took the Cup and Saucer with him, occasionally producing renditions under his own company’s name (he also took the original Cup and Saucer he’d made at Charatan, as Reuben had graciously allowed him to keep it). In the case of this one, it’s an especially large rendition made for the Tilshead workshop’s rare, magnum-sized Empire Series, where it attained an Executive grade. Funnily enough, the James Upshall Executive was also more or less equivalent to the Charatan Executive grade as far as grain quality went, though the former were—as can be seen here—typically much bigger.

This pipe is completely unsmoked. Some small scratches around the bowl, and slight handling marks, though nothing major. Note that this James Upshall has an original, cumberland-style acrylic mouthpiece, rather than an ebonite one, which was offered for a few custom orders during the workshop’s lifetime.

Details:

Length: 8.8″ / 223.5mm

Bowl Width: 0.92 / 23.36mm

Bowl Depth: 2.05″ / 52.07mm

Weight: 4.5oz / 130g