James Upshall R Grade Smooth Bulldog Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates

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 lives on.

The “R” grade is something of a mystery in the history of James Upshall pipes. For reference, just before the workshop closed, the grades offered were Tilshead, Bark, Sandblast, S, A, P, B, G E, X, and XX (the letter stamps being in ascending order of grade), and the magnum-sized Empire Series. S, A, and P were standard grades, whereas B, G, E, etc. were high-grades. So, where does “R” fit into this? I’m not entirely sure. As Ken Barnes once remarked that “R” was not a grade offered during his time at the workshop (1978-1989), and as this James Upshall does not have a size stamp (which was standard practice after 1995), it’s likely the R was conceived between 1989-1995, possibly as an intermediate grade between others (the “A,” for example, was introduced around this time as an intermediate between “S” and “P”), but which was later discontinued, possibly in favor of something else. In any case, this R grade is a nice pipe, with a quite classical bulldog shaping.

The condition is very good. Some scratches on the bowl, minor inner rim darkening, and chamber slightly over-reamed.

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.85 / 21.59mm

Bowl Depth: 1.61″ / 40.89mm

Weight: 1.5oz / 44g