Mountbatten by Charatan 802 Smooth XL Bent Billiard Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates

Description

While Dunhill may be Britain’s most famous pipe brand, Charatan is not only older, but has the honor of being the first to have made its pipes entirely in-house. ‘Charatan’s Make’ referred to the fact that, at a time when other pipe companies were sourcing stummels and stems carved from other companies before assembling them in their factories and workshops, Charatan made every part of their pipes on the Charatan premises. So began a legacy of high-quality pipe-making under the Charatan name, one whose employees, at one time or another, included Joel Sasieni, and Ken Barnes and Barry Jones of James Upshall fame.

What I, and most others, know of Mountbatten comes from pipe historian Bill Ramsey, so it would be easiest to simply quote him. Per Ramsey,
“Charatan sold its seconds under private labels and later acquired the English rights for Ben Wade for just this purpose. Mountbatten, on the other hand was not a “second”(in that there was some physical deformity in the pipe) but rather a first line production from Charatan’s apprentice program. Each Charatan carver might have four or six apprentices at any one time of various skill levels. As they improved and started cutting pipes themselves, these pipes had to move… thus the Mountbatten.”
I would imagine that this was the product of an apprentice turning one of Charatan’s outsize bent shapes. Judging by the high quality of it, I would also imagine that this apprentice moved to the production line proper very soon after.

The condition is very good. Some darkening and finish fading on the rim and minor handling marks.

 

Details:

Length: 6.3″ / 160.0mm

Bowl Width: 0.93 / 23.62mm

Bowl Depth: 1.78″ / 45.21mm

Weight: 2.6oz / 74g