Redman's Royal Straight Grain F

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donjgiles

Lifer
Apr 14, 2018
1,571
2,522
Here is an interesting pipe I just cleaned up. Not much out there about Redman pipes except for this page from Very Keen on Pipes - John Redman. Does anyone out there have anything they can add about these British pipes?

18565062-orig.jpg


18565063-orig.jpg



18565064-orig.jpg
 
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dmcmtk

Lifer
Aug 23, 2013
3,672
1,685
"John Redman Ltd. & British Empire Pipe Co., Westland Place, Hackney, London N1. Founded in 1933 and worked out of Hackney, produced many private label pipes for tobacconists. John Redman Ltd does not exist anymore. It was bought by a company called Sims Redman which went bust by investing badly in films."

Picture below is from 2007.

5497

Nice looking pipe Don.
 

jguss

Lifer
Jul 7, 2013
2,414
6,222
John Redman Ltd goes back a little further than 1933. In the fall of 1928 it was located at 4 Cock hill Middlesex St in London. In 1956 it moved to the 123 (afterwards expanding to 125 and 127) Whitecross Street address, where it remained at least until the 1980s. The company produced (or at any rate sold) a multitude of models. I have an industry handbook from the late 1960s that lists more than forty distinct "imported pipes", a number of Buescher cobs, Wellbents, carved Tyrolean pipes, Stonehaven & Cherries etc, and finally 19 "London Made" pipes ranging from 12/6 to 60 shillings.

The British Empire Pipe Co. is more obscure still. It was formed in 1934 apparently to import Algerian briar to Malta, where it was then made into pipes, largely for export to the UK and other parts of the Empire. I suspect it was established to take advantage of what we would today call an enterprise zone in Malta, when tax concessions and import preferences were offered to attract the capital necessary to stimulate business formation and job creation.

When and how the British Empire Pipe Co. was associated with John Redman Ltd is unclear, at least to me. At a guess I would assume that it was the source of many of the pipes listed many years later under the John Redman name as "imported". In any case the British Empire Pipe Co. maintained a London address at 26 Cross street, which appeared in London phone books from about 1957-1967.
 

jzbdano

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jul 7, 2016
244
564
Wow, great info jguss. Thank you for sharing.

55475548

This Canberra was made by John Redman Ltd. I couldn't find much information on Canberra or John Redman pipes when received the pipe as part of an estate lot. It was unsmoked as far as I could tell and came with an inner tube. I ditched the tube and it has turned into one of my best smokers. It handles those old thin sliced McClelland broken flakes better than any other pipe I own.
 

jensen

Can't Leave
Apr 10, 2016
440
143
In the sixties JR pipes arrived on the Danish market in two qualities, Special and Popular. That was in the years with pipe boom. English pipes at every tobacconist.
I have here a letter from Sims Redman dated 11. aug. 1988 were I was offered Supreme at £ 20, Special at £ 15 and a lower quality with flaws at £ 10, each.
Later in the 80ties they arrived again, I remember I bought 2 or 3 at Pibe Dan then. I still have 7-8 in my unsmoked stock and I also smoke some.
 

donjgiles

Lifer
Apr 14, 2018
1,571
2,522
Thank you very much jguss, that is great information!
Thank you also jensen!
jzbdano, that is a proper looking pipe!
 
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