Sasieni 1946-70 Four Dot Rustic Regent Rusticated Bent Billiard Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates

Description

Along with names like Barling, Charatan, and Dunhill Sasieni holds a special place in the history of English smoking pipes – one near to its very beginnings. So the story goes, Sasieni himself worked for Dunhill during its early days. But eventually he left Dunhill, having his own ideas about how pipes should be made, and founded Sasieni. This was 1919, and Sasieni has been the closest thing to a household name in English pipes ever since.

As I’ve said before, Sasieni’s “Rustic” approach to rustication was a highly unique one, which makes it all the more strange that it didn’t take off more widely as a finishing technique. Instead of merely chopping away at the briar without much thought for what was underneath, Sasieni’s craftsmen would instead use direct their tools at the wood’s natural grain patterns, not unlike the ring grain sandblast approach found in post-war pipe-making. Rusticated Sasienis would therefore each be distinct, as their advertising used to say, because every block of briar possesses its own patterning. In this case, the “Rustic” finish has been applied to Sasieni’s lightweight Regent shape, otherwise known as the 16, a classic bent billiard in the Anglo-French tradition. Based on the stamping, this one also looks to have been made during the “family era” of Sasieni production, some time between the end of the Second World War and 1979.

The condition is fair. Some rim charring, finish fading, and slightly faded nomenclature (though legible).

 

Details:

Length: 6.0″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.78 / 19.81mm

Bowl Depth: 1.53″ / 38.86mm

Weight: 1.2oz / 36g