Gents, thanks for the comments - much appreciated
Aidecaker, I can, without a doubt, quite categorically, and with utter certainty, confirm that these are staying with me. Sorry about that.
Pitchfork, that made me laugh out loud - a good way to end a day - cheers.
Voorhees, that was the second laugh out loud moment of the day - ta!
Hunter, at the risk of kicking off outpourings of indignation from 9/10ths of the pipe world, and a heated debate (again) on the subject, I'll come clean immediately: I WON'T be smoking these - they will be waxed, and left pristine - I have my reasons, involving beauty, history, preservation, etc, etc, etc. anyway, I have enough old soldiers from this period ready to do service without press-ganging the innocents into unnecessary action.
Jon, Dave, again you step up to the plate and bowl me over - astounding. I'm actually going to have to print off your input on each of my pipes and put it with them, or, at least, in a journal with accompanying photo. Would be quite the archive/resource. However, the silver mark is Birmingham, and the makers initials are in an Oval, not unframed. Also, the stampings are higglldy-piggildy, so I'm not certain if the initials are SH, or actually SH. There are no other marks on the pipes.
Al, what can I say? But, yes, you are right. And, by and large, I've stuck to it, and intend to.......,but, when you come across something like this, and get a very strong inkling from the pictures (one in particular) that they are unsmoked, I think it incumbent in a fella to do the right thing..........and, I am weak....very weak.......especially for Bulldogs, and horn stems. Incidentally, these have a very fine slot, rather than the expected orific draft hole I was expecting, and are of above standard quality.
Jpmcwjr, the idea of a pair as you describe crossed my mind - they are exactly the same, except that one is fractionally larger in every dimension. If there was a case, it would be the icing on the cake. Well, I could see a chap smoking one of these while out on the moors, trying to bag Sunday lunch - all sorts of images are presenting themselves ;-)