James Upshall Empire Series Executive Magnum Smooth Dublin 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, along with many of the other major makes of the era. James Upshall pipes are no longer made, but their reputation as some of the finest hand-turned British pipes continues to endure.

Given that James Upshall was created by three ex-Charatan employees, one might wonder if the former’s Executive grade had anything to do with the latter’s. After all, Charatan was well known for its superb, straight grain Executive pipes, especially during the Lane era, which is where Kenneth Barnes, Kennedy Barnes, and Barry Jones first met. An obvious question, then, is if the two Executives are equivalent, as far as quality goes. The short answer is “yes,” though a longer answer is still worth diving into.

The Charatan Executive was, as mentioned, one of the make’s straight grain grades. When asked what the rough James Upshall equivalents to Charatan grades were, the late Kennedy Barnes stated that an Executive quality pipe for Charatan would be a “B” grade for James Upshall (following the slightly confusing, ascending series of Tilshead, S, P, B, G, etc.). The James Upshall Executive, on the other hand, was part of the make’s Empire Series, one specifically for rare, magnum-sized pipes. The Empire Series also had a grade system, one denoted by words, rather than letters, but each Empire grade corresponded to a standard-sized grade. The Old England was a magnum-sized P grade, for example, while the Ambassador was a magnum-sized G. The James Upshall Empire Series Executive was a magnum-sized B grade. Thus, as the James Upshall B grade was roughly equivalent to a Charatan Executive in quality, so was the James Upshall Executive. We can extrapolate for ourselves, however, that the James Upshall one was one step above a typical Charatan Executive, given its size. In other words, it would fall under the Charatan classification of Executive Extra Large. One other key difference between this pipe and a Charatan is that the latter did not include an option for hand-cut cumberland stems, whereas James Upshall pipes, like this one, occasionally did—though this did come at a premium.

This pipe is completely unsmoked. A couple of very light scratches on the outside of the bowl, though nothing major by any stretch.

Length: 7.2″ / 182.8mm

Bowl Width: 0.89 / 22.60mm

Bowl Depth: 2.07″ / 52.57mm

Weight: 2.8oz / 80g