Willmer Straight Grain AAA Standard Extra Large Smooth Brandy (Estate)

H. Willmer and Sons was an English pipe workshop founded at some point in the mid-20th century and closed in the mid-2000s. Harold Willmer himself was the brother of Dan Tennyson, one of Charatan’s freehand carvers, and would, according to Ken Barnes, often buy bowls from Charatan’s freehand workshop, which would be subsequently finished by Willmer’s craftsmen. In addition to these pipes, Willmer also manufactured more traditional briars, which were also made by hand.

While the majority of Willmer’s high-end Straight Grain pipes were freehand designs in the English vein, the Standard subseries took the same exemplary grain patterns as other Straight Grain pipes, but worked them into more traditional Anglo-French forms. These pipes were still recognizably hand-turned, while also not being too far off from the classic briars of the 19th and early 20th centuries. This one is a hearty bent brandy of house pipe proportions, for example, with consistent vertical striations lining its bowl, and a vast ocean of bird’s-eye grain covering its underside.

The condition is great. Minor finish fading and slight handling marks.

Details:

Length: 6.2″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.90 / 22.86mm

Bowl Depth: 2.02″ / 51.30mm

Weight: 3.3oz / 94g