Help finding more pictures of the first pipe owned by an Englishman

[woodsroad]

@woodsroad
Can you please give an example of those run of the mill unknown origin Dunhill pipes that you are talking about?

Dunhill pipes are pedestrian, at best. Sold at Ferarri prices. And have no connection to Alfred Dunhill. It’s just a trade name now.

 

[rakovsky]

Dunhill pipes are pedestrian, at best. Sold at Ferarri prices. And have no connection to Alfred Dunhill. It’s just a trade name now.

Around when did they become pedestrian in quality? 1990?

 

[Waning Embers]

Around when did they become pedestrian in quality? 1990?

From the beginning. Alfred was a genius at marketing. 2011 was the last year the true Dunhills ended just before being rebranded as Alfred Dunhill's White Spot in an attempt for Dunhill proper to be a dealer of luxury goods and to wash their hands of the pipe industry.

 

[georged]

From the beginning.

Nonsense.

Accurate shaping, the highest level of wood (densely grained & no fills), and stems cut from rod stock ebonite are hardly "pedestrian".

I have worked on pipes for decades, specializing in high grades and collectables for the past 20 years sent to me from all over the world. I've seen all manner of absurd & ignorant bullshit incorporated into many of them. Not Dunhills, though.

Are they as good as they once were? No. Are they overpriced? Yes. Are they "pedestrian". Absolutely not.

 

[rakovsky]

Are they as good as they once were? No.

When did their quality decline?
2011?
1990?

 

[woodsroad]

Nonsense.

Accurate shaping, the highest level of wood (densely grained & no fills), and stems cut from rod stock ebonite are hardly "pedestrian".

I have worked on pipes for decades, specializing in high grades and collectables for the past 20 years sent to me from all over the world. I've seen all manner of absurd & ignorant bullshit incorporated into many of them. Not Dunhills, though.

Are they as good as they once were? No. Are they overpriced? Yes. Are they "pedestrian". Absolutely not.

Pedestrian in design, not quality.
But, then again, a pipe made from an old corn cob is more than sufficient to get the most out of even the finest tobacco.

 

[sablebrush52]

When did their quality decline?
2011?
1990?

Take your pick. The most common I'd heard was 1967-8, when Dunhill supposedly increased the amount of machining compared to handwork, coupled with a drop in the quality of the briar they were using. The 1970's are not considered a great period for Dunhill. The quality is supposed to have risen in the decades since.

 

[georged]

Pedestrian in design, not quality.

Ah.

Whole different thing, that.

In fact, Dunhill's foray into innovative design in the 1970's (to compete with the incoming Nordic tidal wave)---called the Collector series---is famous for being holy shit ugly. Like something they turned over to clueless new-hires:

 

[MisterBadger]

I wonder if the ancients in the Caribbean had been previously visited by the Algerians, who brought with them heather seeds, who then planted them and four centuries later fashioned them into a pipe for Sir Walter Raleigh, who before he was hung handed it from the scaffold to Bishop Andrewes, and for four more centuries generations of the Bishop’s descendants kept it pristine and venerated until on November 28, 1911 it mysteriously came into the possession of Alfred Dunhill?

- The great Sir Walter Ralegh was not hanged (a punishment reserved for commoners), but beheaded (a swifter method of despatch before the invention of the long drop in the mid 19thC), a privilege accorded knights and peerage.

 

[woodsroad]

- The great Sir Walter Ralegh was not hanged (a punishment reserved for commoners), but beheaded (a swifter method of despatch before the invention of the long drop in the mid 19thC), a privilege accorded knights and peerage.

Never underestimate the kindness of British aristocracy.

 

[MisterBadger]

Never underestimate the kindness of British aristocracy.

You're absolutely right. The trial was a stitch-up, and King James could legitimately have had Ralegh hanged, drawn and quartered, as the charge was treason (when convicted of treason, you forfeited the privileges of rank). However, he was something of a folk hero, so had condign punishment (as they say) been carried out, it is likely there would have been riots and Ralegh might even have been rescued. Far safer and more expedient for Jamie to appear merciful and commute the sentence to beheading within the highly secure precincts of the Tower of London, rather than the public spectacle hanging, drawing and quartering required (the preliminary being dragged face down on a hurdle through the streets of the city). In these humane times, political embarrassments tend to have fatal accidents or die in prison from unexpected but ostensibly natural causes (or suicide) instead. How nice we seem by comparison...

 

[Briar Lee]

Nonsense.

Accurate shaping, the highest level of wood (densely grained & no fills), and stems cut from rod stock ebonite are hardly "pedestrian".

I have worked on pipes for decades, specializing in high grades and collectables for the past 20 years sent to me from all over the world. I've seen all manner of absurd & ignorant bullshit incorporated into many of them. Not Dunhills, though.

Are they as good as they once were? No. Are they overpriced? Yes. Are they "pedestrian". Absolutely not.

More measures of quality.

On my wrist is $400 grade Orient Star wristwatch. Is it as good as a Rolex? No.

Is it a better watch than a $150 Orient Bambino? Yes.

Does a Rolex, an Orient Star, and an Orient all keep better time than reasonably required, hell yes, there’s little difference.

Pipe quality is also shaping and fitting and polishing and beautiful, elegant design.

But that’s not smoking quality.

Dunhill uses the best commercially available briar, always has.

And a Dunhill is well made, always has been.

 

[HeadMisfit]

I may not LIKE the man man behind the company, any year of its existence. I may not like the attitutde behind the company now. I may not like the companies buisness philosophy nor its down the nose behaviour.

But I honestly do not mind their products. I have a smidgen of Dunhill LIghters that anyone else here does. I dont have a dunhill pipe either. But I am actually on the market for one.

Strange huh?