Willmer Straight Grain AAA XL Smooth Dublin Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

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.

This is one of Willmer’s freehand pipes and, as ever, I am left wondering whether the bowl was turned at Charatan, or at the W. Willmer and Sons workshop. It’s certainly one of the latter’s high-grade pipes, a Straight Grain triple-A grade, taking the form of a quite English, freehand Dublin with a plateaux rim. It is also very large, with a tall bowl and deep chamber—again, something quite familiar to English freehand designs.

The pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original (slightly over-applied at the rim) bowl coating. Some slight scratches around the bowl, though superficial, and some minor finish fading.

 

Details:

Length: 6.5″ / 165.1mm

Bowl Width: 1.00 / 25.4mm

Bowl Depth: 2.16″ / 54.86mm

Weight: 2.8oz / 80g