By Al Jones

This pipe belongs to my buddy Dave, who has a knack for picking up unusually great pipes. This one is a Savory’s Agryll, shape 189. Surprisingly, I found out very little about the Savory’s brand. Pipepedia doesn’t have a section on this maker and only states that the brand was created in 1885 by H.L. Savory & Co.; London and Oxford. At some unknown point, it was acquired by Dunhill. Via pipe forums, the consensus is that the Savory’s was a quality step below Parker and Hardcastle. This example, to my eye has some fantastic details and I’d say it is on par with my 1961 Dunhill Shape 120 which it greatly resembles, although on a slightly larger scale. The bowl on this one is 2 1/4″ deep and it is over 6″ in length. I don’t believe there is any way to determine the age of the pipe, there are no number stamps like Dunhill uses.

Below is a Savory’s Catalog page showing the Shape 189. This shape number was also used by Parker.

The pipe as received was dirty with some heavy oxidation on the stem, but it was relatively bite-mark free.

I reamed the slight cake from the pipe and soaked it with sea salt and alcohol. The stem was soaked in a mild Oxy-Clean solution. Following the soak, I cleaned the briar with some warm, mild soapy water. The briar was buffed by hand with Halycon II wax.

I mounted the stem and removed the heavy layer of oxidation with 400, then 800 grade wet paper, being careful to stay away from the stamped “S” logo. Next up was 1,000 and 2,000 grade paper, followed by 8,000 micromesh. The stem was then buffed with White Diamond and then Meguiars plastic polish.

The stem polished up brilliantly and the overall quality, button, tenon & fitment seems equal to my Dunhill pipes.

Below is the finished pipe.