Sasieni Four Dot 1946-79 Rustic Buckingham XS Rusticated 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.
This particular Four Dot Rustic takes the form of the Buckingham, also known at the 55, a large billiard that was part of Sasieni’s range of premium shapes (also indicated by the “XS” stamp). Based on the nomenclature, it 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 inner rim charring and finish fading. The pipe comes with its original sleeve.

 

Details:

Length: 6.4″ / 162.5mm

Bowl Width: 0.85 / 21.59mm

Bowl Depth: 1.58″ / 40.13mm

Weight: 1.5oz / 44g