James Upshall G Grade 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. Sadly, James Upshall pipes are no longer made, but their reputation as some of the finest hand-turned British pipes lives on.

While the James Upshall workshop predominantly used letter grades on their pipes, these letters did not ascend or descend alphabetically in relation to the pipe’s stature. In other words, it wasn’t a case of grade A, then B, then C, and so on; it was S, A, P, B, G, E, X, and XX (as well as a parallel Empire Series for magnum pipes). This was a consequence of the grading system evolving over time, rather than beginning fully planned out, making it a little unintuitive. Shortly before his untimely passing, however, Kennedy Barnes offered a very helpful approximation as to how some of these grades compared to the grades of his former employer, Charatan. G grade James Upshalls were, according to Barnes, somewhere around the Selected or Supreme grades he’d worked on at his former employer, during its celebrated Lane era (so-called because this was the period when Charatan was owned by Herman Lane and Lane Ltd.). While we’re on the topic of Charatan, fans of the London pipe powerhouse will likely recognize this G grade as essentially being an upscaled version of its classic “Bell Dublin” shape. Distinguished by its slender frame and a bowl slightly more conical than other shapes of its kind, the Bell Dublin was actually conceived under Reuben Charatan, who took a young Barry Jones under his wing as soon as he left high school. As far as this pipe goes, it’s a masterful rendition of a form Jones could probably turn blindfolded, given how many he would have made even before James Upshall was founded. It also features a rare example of a hand-cut cumberland stem, something Jones learned to work with much later into his career, and which his workshop offered at a steep premium.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating.

Details:

Length: 6.6″ / 167.6mm

Bowl Width: 0.91 / 23.11mm

Bowl Depth: 2.00″ / 50.80mm

Weight: 1.8oz / 52g