Unknown British pipe

I can't help you out with the markings banjo, but that is a beautiful pipe. How did you get an u smoked 100+ year old pipe like that?

That truly is a beautiful piece of history! It makes sense that many of us would probably be hesitant to smoke an unsmoked pipe of that age, but I'm partially hoping that you'll smoke it ::

I searched English makers and couldn't find anything. Gorgeous pipe. As someone who buys and smokes century old pipes a word of caution...old briar that is exposed to steam can crack very easily. I've had it happen twice and I think Duane (Chasing Embers) had a catastrophic failure on one of his. But, life itself is risk. I say smoke it. I would.

Banjo, all I've got, and it's a maybe, is: Arthur BAYMAN trading as DAVIES & CO - London.
http://www.silvercollection.it/DICTIONARYTOBACCONISTD.html

That looks like it could be a match, if there are any other sources on it to corroborate it. To state the obvious, the pipe looks decidedly high-end with its metal work, finish, case and stem. That suggests that there should be some record of it otherwise. Calling London....

Banjo, all I've got, and it's a maybe, is: Arthur BAYMAN trading as DAVIES & CO - London.

Click to expand...

Noble try, but I think it's a miss. According to your source, the assay office would be Chester and this pipes sports a leopard's head on the hallmarks, which is London. Of course, the info could be wrong or incomplete.

Other possibilities:
Edward Durban & Co. Chester
https://www.silvermakersmarks.co.uk/Makers/Chester-D.html
I'm not finding any London based makers marks that would match, on this site or the others that I've checked. Unfortunately, there's no one place that has correlated all of this info, and all of this info is still very incomplete.

jesse, another difficulty (besides the geography) is that the example given of the Durban hallmark is actually D&Co., with the "o" in company raised as a superscript. I see no evidence of an "o" on Banjo's pipe. Not conclusive, but I suspect we're looking for another silversmith

I've got an obscure guess, but it's only that. i started by looking for london-based pipe mfrs of the time (1910-1915) consisting of partners whose last names began with "d" and then "c". zilch. then i began looking for silversmiths. here i struck tin. in 1910 there were two neighbors on tottenham court road: james dodimead, of 50 tottenham court, sold electrical accessories; and william campbell, of 40 tottenham court, was a jeweler. in the 1911 census campbell is listed as retired, and dodimead is listed as a jeweler. in 1914 william died, and in the post office directory issued later that year james dodimead is listed as "dodimead, james (late william campbell), diamond merchant, goldsmith, silversmith & jeweller. 40 tottenham court"
so if you want a very longshot guess, here one is: william campbell retired in the years immediately before his death, say 1911-13, and at some point he passed the business and its premises along to his neighbor james dodimead; perhaps during a brief transitional period the business was called dodimead & campbell, and utilized hallmarks that read d&c.
that's an awful lot of supposition to load onto one little pipe, but for now it's the best i can do. i can think of several reasons why this might be a false trail, but it's worth thinking about all the same. unfortunately as jesse said information regarding uk silversmiths and their hallmarks is scattered around many places and a theory like this can be hard to prove (although a book by john culme is very helpful, if difficult to find).
in any case it's a beautiful pipe and a remarkable find!

Yeah, I saw the Co, and it's the wrong damned town to boot. But I struck out with a D&C London maker's mark on any of the sites I checked.
If you're going to smoke that pipe, tread cautiously. The wood on unsmoked pipes that old can be very fragile and can split. You can coat the walls with a silicate compound mixed with charcoal and that will offer some insulation. Check with Georged.