Blog by Steve Laug
I am currently in the mode of cleaning up pipes in my collection. I have been polishing and giving them attention as well as taking the time to enjoy them by looking at them and handling each one. I have shown my John Calich and my Mark Tinsky pipes. This morning I am working through my Dunhills. As I went through them I have to say I am a bit surprised that I have so many of them. I figured there were a half-dozen or so but have never really looked at them all in one place. Laid out together there are eleven of them. I used to have a dozen I guess, but I sold one to a friend’s wife for her husband’s birthday – a 1973 Tanshell. So here are my eleven pipes.
The first group is the Shell or Shell Briars – I have five of them. They are beautiful sandblast pipes with a two-tone finish of dark and medium brown (or maybe dark brown with the high portions buffed lighter). The first of them is an old-timer. It is a bent billiard whose blast has been worn smooth over the years. I have had it dated to various times from mid 30’s to 1943.
The stamping is quite weak but under a bright light with a lense it reads as follows:
DUNHILL SHELL Made in England 3 (this three is the questionable issue – overstamped)
N52 PATENT NO. 417574/34
It is in good shape regardless of the age. The blast on the rim is worn but the stem is in good shape with minor tooth marks on the stem and the button surface. The white spot is darkened and appears to possibly be ivory though I am not sure.
The next two are Birth Year Pipes for me. They are both made in 1954. The first one is a Canadian that I picked up on EBay. I had been looking for a birth year pipe for quite a while and contacted Mike Hagley regarding one. I had heard he might have one that I could purchase. He sent me the link to this one on EBay. It was not in good shape and had a stem with a missing white spot. I bid and won the auction. I sent it to Dave Wolf at Walker Briarworks for cleaning and repair. Dave did a great job cleaning it up and repairing the stem for me. I have had it for quite a few years now and enjoyed smoking it on my birthday. The ultimate pleasure was smoking this 1954 Dunhill Canadian with some 1954 Dobie Four Square Green on my 54th birthday a few years ago.
The stamping on this one is:
EC F/T DUNHILL Made in England 4 with a 4 in a circle and an S
SHELL BRIAR Patent No. 417574/34
It is in great shape since Dave worked on it. The finish is beautiful and the blast has a mix of birdseye and cross grain. There are some deep craggy places in the blast and the blast on the oval shank is also well done. It is one of my favourite pipes in the collection.
The second birth year pipe is a billiard. I bought this one on EBay as well. Its condition is good. The finish on the bowl and shank is excellent and the blast is deep and craggy. Somewhere along the way I believe someone topped this pipe so it has a smooth, restained rim. One day I may send it out and have the rim reworked to match the rest of the pipe. Or maybe one day I will attempt it myself. The time just has not been right for me to do either one. The stem is in good shape with a few small tooth marks on the surface. It is also a pleasure to smoke. I find though that the smooth rim just makes me reach for it less than my other birth year pipe.
The stamping on this is:
K F/T DUNHILL SHELL Made in England 4 with a 4 in a circle
Patent No. 417574/34
The fourth Shell in my collection is moving into another decade. I have two Shells from the 1960 era. The first one is a Billiard that is in good shape. The finish on the bowl and shank is excellent though this pipe is nowhere near as craggy as the 1954 billiard. The blast is nice but not deep. Like the 1954 billiard this one has seen some work on the rim. It appears to have been lightly topped so much of the blast on the rim is gone leaving behind a few deeper spots. I found this pipe in a Value Village Thrift Shop (Rummage Shop) in a display case and bought it for the paltry sum of $12 CNDN. It has some ripples on the top of the vulcanite stem and some tooth marks on the underside.
The stamping on this one reads:
60 DUNHILL Made In 4 in a circle and S
SHELL BRIAR England 1
The last Shell is bent bulldog shaped pipe from 1966. It is actually one of my favourite Dunhill shapes. I have one in almost the exact shape that is stamped Parker. This pipe has an amazing deep blast that hearkens back to the earlier blasts on the Shells. The finish is in excellent shape with even the rim showing the blast. The diamond shank with a flattened bottom transitions nicely into the stem. The stem was in excellent shape, or at least I thought it was when I bought it off of Ebay. When I received it the top and sides of the stem were oxidized and there was a light tooth mark on top. When I turned it over there was a bite through on the underside next to the button. I cleaned it up and repaired it with a black superglue patch. The pipe stem looks quite clean and new now and there are not any bite through marks or tooth marks.
The stamping on this one reads:
P DUNHILL Made in 4 in a circle and S
SHELL BRIAR England 6
I have one Tan Shell in my collection. It is a little group 1 sized billiard with a saddle stem. I picked this up in an Antique Mall in Washington State. It was hidden stem down in a jar of old Dr. Grabows that were in rough shape and a few old corn cobs. I saw the sand blast and the shape and colour and could not believe it. I took the pipe out of the jar and sure enough it was a Dunhill. The price on it was $10 – an unbelievable deal. It was clean and the finish was slightly soiled. The rim had some darkening but the bowl was clean. The stem has a great fish tail look to it and was only oxidized. I have smoked this one quite a bit since the day I found it and it is a great smoking little pipe. It is on the small side for me but I reach for it for a quick smoke.
The stamping on it reads:
576 F/T DUNHILL Made in 1 in a circle and T
TAN SHELL England 3 and slightly lower and offset 4
The date stamping makes me think that the pipe was made in 1963 and stamped or issued in 1964. I am never sure about the meaning of the double date numbers. I remember reading though something along what I mentioned above.
I have two Root Briar pipes both from 1961. The first of those is a large billiard that I purchased on Ebay with a burned through in the bottom of the bowl. Because of the damage it was very cheap. When it arrived I drilled out the burn through and repaired it with a briar plug. I have written about that repair on the blog earlier. The finish other than that burn through was in good shape with some cross grain on the sides of the bowl and birdseye grain on the front and back sides. The stem was clean except for some tooth marks on the top and bottom of the stem near the button. The pipe cleaned up well and is a good smoking pipe.
The stamping is on both sides of the shank. It reads:
On the left side:
59 F/T DUNHILL
ROOT BRIAR
On the right side:
Made in 4 in a circle and R
England 1
The second Root Briar is a 1961 straight shank bulldog. I picked this one up in a trade. It is a beautifully executed pipe. Dunhill makes some stellar bulldogs. The finish on this one was in excellent shape when it arrived. It matches the finish on the billiard exactly. There was some rim darkening but no serious damage to the rim. It has a mix of grains with nothing that truly stands out. The stem was in excellent shape with slight oxidation but no tooth marks or chatter. It is another great smoking pipe.
The stamping is on both sides of the shank. It reads:
On the left side:
OXS F/T DUNHILL
ROOT BRIAR
On the right side:
Made in 4 in a circle and R
England 1
The next pipe is a bit of a mystery. It does not have any date stamping on the shank. The shank is also repaired at the factory as the stamping goes over the shank splice. The shank is a separate piece of briar from the bowl. A response by Jacek Rochacki on a post I wrote yesterday on the addition of a shank extension made me think that possibly this pipe was made during the war years when briar was hard to come by. The factory thus spliced together two pieces of briar to make this pipe. The omission of the date stamp is still a puzzle so I may never know when the pipe was made. I have written previously about this pipe on the blog. It is a straight stemmed prince shape. It is definitely not one of my favourite shapes. I picked it up at an Antique Mall in BC quite a few years ago now. The seller had it priced at $20 Cndn so I did not ask questions and bought it immediately. The bowl finish was worn and the rim was badly beaten. I steamed the rim, topped it lightly and reshaped the bowl accordingly. The stem was in excellent shape with little oxidation. There were minor tooth marks near the button on the top and bottom sides of the stem.
The stamping is deep and legible on both sides and reads:
On the left
FET DUNHILL
BRUYERE
On the right
Made in 4 in a circle A
England (no date stamp following the D in England)
The last two pipes in my Dunhill collection are more current production models. The first is a bent Rhodesian with a Shell finish. This one does not have the old characteristic rich contrasting stain on the blast. It is stained black. It is well executed and comfortable to hold. The shank and the stem are on the chunky side, which I like. It is a nicely made taper stem. I bought this from a pipe dealer in Washington who had close out stock that he was moving.
It is stamped:
3108 dunhill in an oval Shell Grain over Made in England 01
The stamping dates this pipe as a 2001. I smoked it quite a bit and it is a great size for putting in my jacket pocket when I am out on a walk about.
The last pipe is an Amber Root apple. I loved the finish on this one when I saw and had to have it. I purchased it from the same dealer as the little Rhodesian above. It has a reddish finish and some stellar grain. The sides of the bowl and shank have straight or flame grain. The rim, top of the shank and the underside of the bowl and shank have beautiful birdseye grain. The stem is well made and comfortable. This pipe is also a great size for the pocket and smokes well.
It is stamped on both sides of the shank.
On the left it reads:
3101 dunhill in an oval
On the right it reads:
AMBER ROOT
Made in England 05
The stamping makes this a pipe made in 2005. As such it is the newest Dunhill pipe in my collection.
That is my entire Dunhill collection as it stands today. It spans a large part of history from either 1937/1943 to 2005. It has pipes with a variety of Dunhill finishes – Shell, Shell Briar, Tan Shell, Root Briar, Bruyere and Amber Root. Each pipe in itself is a well made factory pipe. The earlier pipes have some stunning blasts and finishes while the two newer ones also have some beautiful finishes that are unique to the newer lines. I cannot say that I am a Dunhill fanatic but having these pipes in my collection make me a small time collector that is for sure. I think the thing I enjoy about the Dunhill pipes is that they can generally be dated to a period of history. As one who enjoys knowing that kind of detail regarding the pipes I smoke I have to say that I am drawn to them. To this day I continue to check the display cases at thrift shops and antique malls in hopes of finding yet another old Dunhill. But I guess that finding four of them that way is not to bad a record.
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I really like that Canadian
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That Canadian is one of my favourites as well – besides it being my birth year pipe.
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Well, it is real beauty, and the Dunhill’s shape EC is sometime considered as most “canadian shape like”/”canadianic” 🙂 in comparison to other Dunhill’s canadians like ES (specially in edition with longer stem) or, otherwise so nice model 335. But EC “rulez” – as younger generation sometime says.
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What an interesting and varied group of classic Dunhills. Since I was born in 1961, that bulldog is my favorite!
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Dear Steve:
Thank you for your warm, kind words. It is me who is grateful for your understanding and tolerance of my perhaps too personal and emotional expression. It is so good to feel that I am between Friends, even it is a virtual relation.
With regard to quality of older and “newer” Dunhills: beside known article by R.D. Field, I had this great chance of talking a lot during once to be numerous visits to the British Isles on most private/informal occasions to several of former Dunhill employes, then elder, retired people. I can prove nothing, but what I was told is still in my memory that, thanks God, still serves me well. I would like to say, that there were cases when the bowls were turned, went under the famous oil curing process and then put on shelves awaiting moment when, on “signal” from the marketing people they will be fitted with stems, finishing procedures will be applied and the pipe will be stamped with markings including dating digits. So it may be that the pipe that dates to late ’70 has the briar part originally made in ’60.
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Your reflections, Steve, on your Dunhill collection prompts me to tell my own story. Before the WW II my Father has gathered nice collection of Dunhills. They were burned with all our belongings in 1944 when the Warsaw’s Uprising fall down and the city was ruined and burned in roughly speaking ca. 80% of buildings. A couple of years after the war has ended some people who emigrated to the West begun to visit my Father in Poland. They were bringing Him Dunhill pipes. But He politely and firmly refused saying that it would be very bad manner to use objects that, beside top “utilitarian” quality are signs of luxury in so badly destroyed country which beside destruction has been bearing dreadful consequences of division of the world after the end of the war.
I was brought up “pipe-wise” in such attitude to Dunhills, so for most of my life I was avoiding them. It was just few years ago that I realized that we are free again, and it is time to commemorate in symbolic way also small, private memories of former generation. So I turned my attention to Dunhills and my experience and knowledge in applied art affairs, in search for objects etc. was most helpful. In three or four years I have gathered a couple of dozens of Dunhills from the Patent Era and after. I was aiming toward pipes no younger then end of ’60, preferably older. I’ll never forget friendly and most enlightening consultation by late John Loring that helped me much in some cases. I know different opinion on Dunhills as smokers, but in my case all my “Dunnies” turned out to be best smokers in comparison to my other pipes including Charatans from 1939 -45, Barling Pre Transition, Masta, BBB, Civic from 1912 – 1918, old Loeve, plenty of other British and Scandinavian pipes, mostly from ’60 and ’70.
And with age I smoked less and less. Then three years ago I decided to return to amateur’s playing of classical music. As many of my Dunhills were getting dusty as I did not smoke as much as before, I sold a lion’s part of my Dunhill collection to finance purchase of good musical instrument. Still I keep several Dunhills but I plan to sell five more as I smoke these day perhaps once per week, and nobody of next generations in my Family smokes, so I do not want to make an inconvenience to them with such inheritance; yes, they collect art including objects of applied art, but not smoking pipes. But I intend to keep and I still smoke sometime:
two canadian shapes – models ES and EC, both in Shell Briar Edition
two lovats – model 40 – in Shell Briar and Root Briar editions.
Billiards: 250, 251, 60 all in Shell Briar Edition.
Pot – model 501, in Shell Briar Edition
Liverpool – model 33, saddle stem, Shell Briar Edition.
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Jacek that is fascinating history regarding your family and the Dunhill pipes. I have to agree that they are great smoking pipes. Even the two newer ones that I have smoke very well. Thank you for your comments.
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