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1950 Dunhill 120 Shell

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doctorbob

doctorbob

Part of the Furniture Now
Mar 18, 2014
772
1,158
Grand Ledge, Michigan
Picked this one up from ebay, cleaned up into 'like new' condition. Stamping is extraordinarily sharp, with a pristine stem, passes a cleaner, and smokes sweet and dry. My response to most factory blasting (a opposed to true artisan level sandblasting) is usually meh... But this pipe is gorgeous!
The listing said they thought it had a band at one time, and I agree that the pipe might have been intended for a band from the factory since there is an unblasted section of briar at the end of the shank, but I see no compression marks or other damage I would associate with a band being fitted. Plus any band would have covered the group stamp, so I don't know.
It is a patent pipe that dates to 1950, has a group stamp, but no finish letter code.






 
mackeson

mackeson

Part of the Furniture Now
Mar 29, 2016
758
2
That is a Bea-utiful pipe! Great acquisition. Congrats on the auction win!

 
georged

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,542
14,284
I'd love to know the backstory of the masking stripe at the end of the shank.
I've seen many thousands of Dunhills and that's a first. Blasting to the edge while maintaining a convincingly smooth shank/stem transition was a point of pride for them because it is technically more difficult.
Can you take a pic of the nomenclature?

 
G

graydawn

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 7, 2014
164
1
Beautiful pipe and blast. George, I'm with you, Dunhill never had a tape mark at the shank stem junction. Perhaps a replacement bit?

 
georged

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,542
14,284
George, I'm with you, Dunhill never had a tape mark at the shank stem junction. Perhaps a replacement bit?
Click to expand...
That doesn't make sense, either. The smooth ring is higher than the adjacent textured surface, not lower, and the tricky part when fitting a rep stem is achieving flush without removing wood from the shank.
Hard to be sure without having it in hand, but the stem looks original based on the pics so far.
As for the pipe itself---the blast, condition, crispy nomenclature, etc.---that's about as good as those things get. Great find. :D
---
PS for DoctorBob: I don't think that pipe wore a metal band at any time.

 
doctorbob

doctorbob

Part of the Furniture Now
Mar 18, 2014
772
1,158
Grand Ledge, Michigan
The stem is consistent with the maker and the era. The end of the shank was masked before blasting, that much is certain as the smooth area is ABOVE the level of the blast.
Doc

 
G

graydawn

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 7, 2014
164
1
Ok, I can see that now. Thanks. Not really wide enough for much of a band. Ever see a 120 with a factory band?

 
georged

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,542
14,284
If forced to put down money on a guess, I'd say the answer to the mystery is simply that a step was skipped during production---the post-blast texture blending that Dunhill did by hand at the end of the shank for Shells and Tanshells---and some QA guy was sipping his tea when it scooted past during final inspection.

 
georged

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,542
14,284
Ever see a 120 with a factory band?
Click to expand...
There are a few presentation-style gold banded 120's out there. Most were retro-fitted, though, to meet a special request.

 
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