Les Wood (pre-Ferndown) Smooth Apple w/ Silver Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

As detailed in our interview with Leslie Wood (which can be found on the main MBSD Pipes hub), the pipes that he and his wife, Dolly Wood, made after leaving Dunhill went by many names—including some that, until quite recently, had been all but forgotten. Both Leslie and Dolly worked at Dunhill after finishing high school, and did so for quite a few years, with Leslie working in the silver mounting department and Dolly working in the finishing department. Leslie departed around 1980 (give or take a few years) to establish an independent silverware company, and Dolly left not long after, and not long after that, the two started making pipes of their own. The pipes that most people remember today were called “Ferndown,” named after the house that Leslie and Dolly lived in. For the German market, the two also made “Elwood” pipes, in part because it was assumed that German speakers would struggle with “Ferndown.” Finally, there were also the pipes made for James Barber, a tobacconist in England, which carried the James Barber name. However, there were several names that these pipes went by before Ferndown, Elwood, or the James Barber series came into the picture. For example, there were a series of names taken from periods in English royal history, such as the “Jacobean” and the “Tudor,” which Leslie and Dolly worked on before they had even set up a workshop in their home (one early workshop space was shared with Bill Taylor and co. of Ashton, while another was shared with a furniture manufacturer).

This particular pipe is a very early, and very uncommon, example of another name Leslie and Dolly used for their pipes, though one that is far easier to identify than, say, a Jacobean: Les Wood. Ferndown collectors will already know that most of those pipes were stamped with a short script indicating the pipe as having been “made by Les Wood,” though it seems that this practice originated with pipes that predated Ferndown by a long time—back when it referred not only to the man behind the brand, but to the brand itself.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating. One or two slight scratches on the bowl, though nothing major.

Details:

Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.82 / 20.82mm

Bowl Depth: 1.39″ / 35.30mm

Weight: 1.3oz / 38g