James Upshall Empire Series Tradition Magnum Smooth Bent Billiard 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. Sadly, James Upshall pipes are no longer made, but their reputation as some of the finest hand-turned British pipes lives on.

The James Upshall grading scheme is a little complicated, in part because some grades were named after places (i.e., the Tilshead), some using letters (e.g., S, G, E), some simply using descriptors for the finish used (e.g., Bark, Sandblast, etc.), and some using words that evoked, variously, things like history and excellence (e.g., Executive, Old England etc.) This would be an example of the latter, a Tradition grade, which fell under the umbrella of James Upshall’s Empire Series. The Empire Series was exclusively for magnum-sized pipes, and were furthermore exemplars for the mastery of the workshop’s craftsmen when it came to shaping and to chasing the finest grain patterns around. This necessitated so much time and energy per pipe, as well as the large, consistently high-quality blocks of briar needed to make them, that production was extremely limited.
This one is a very large, long shank, long saddle bent billiard, a distinctive form with a clear nod to the idiosyncratic shaping found in Charatan’s freehand pipes. As one should expect, it is lavished with flame grain running around its bulbous bowl, and indeed all the way up each side of its shank.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating. A couple of very small scratches on the bowl, but nothing major by any stretch.
Note that this pipe has a cumberland-style acrylic stem, rather than the typical ebonite found on James Upshall pipes. This is something that was offered at times by the workshop for special orders.

Details:

Length: 7.6″ / 193.0mm

Bowl Width: 0.85 / 21.59mm

Bowl Depth: 1.83″ / 46.48mm

Weight: 3.5oz / 100g