Sasieni 1946-79 Four Dot St Andrews XS Skater 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.

After a legal battle with Dunhill prevented Sasieni from using a one dot stem inlay, Joel Sasieni was forced to come up with a new way of marking the company’s most perfect pipes. So, Sasieni started using “Four Dot” inlays instead. Thus was born the Four Dot, which, funnily enough, came to rival even Dunhill’s “White Spot” as a signifier for high-grade, English-made pipes. This one belongs to the Four Dot Walnut line, whose light brown finish, in Sasieni’s words, “accentuates the beautiful grain that the smoker has naturally come to expect in a pipe of Sasieni Four-Dot quality.” Perhaps the most interesting thing about this particular Four Dot, however, is its shape. A hybrid of sorts between a skater and a Dublin, the St Andrews (also known as the shape 108) was a rare and highly distinctive design that was included among Sasieni’s “premium priced” pipes, even compared to other Four Dots in the same line (this being the meaning of the pipe’s “XS” stamp). Based on the nomenclature, this pipe will have been made some time between the post-war years and 1979, while the Sasieni family still owned the make.

The condition is very good. Some minor wear to the inner rim and a few small, superficial scratches on the bowl.

Details:

Length: 5.7″ / 144.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.94 / 23.87mm

Bowl Depth: 1.75″ / 44.45mm

Weight: 2.1oz / 60g