In my opinion it is based pipe to pipe. I prefer British pipes to the Italians right now, so for me it would be Dunhill of the two. I would actually pick other British makers such as Ferndown, Askwith, Ashton and Ser Jacopo, Mastro de Paja, and Don Carlos for the Italians over Dunhill and Castello.
It is called a gallery band. Its a custom silver band done by Les. Its a bit fancier than his usual silver bands. All his bands are made by hand. I had identical pipes made for myself and a friend and thought it would be something no one had and a little different to make them special as a gift...
Well I have a few more that are inbound or will be inbound in the next few months. First is an Ashton Lx claret.
Next is a Ferndown 3* straight Grain that a friend scored for me as I am working on getting him a few pipes from a friend.
Then I have a Tilshead group 6 in plum bent billiard...
Its 4 months and 100 posts to sell and trade here.. I would say ebay, pipestud or a few other sellers like coopersank, maximum from pipes2smoke, or even smokingpipes.com.
Les is a good friend and doing work once and a while when he gets bored. Keep your eyes out at pipes2smoke.com as he just sent some to him. Maxim should receive them shortly and put them up. He turned 69 and is enjoying his retirement, but he and Dolly do get bored and miss working in the shop.
Well I have been looking for a Tudor Root 3* bent bulldog to replace one I had int he past. Well I scored one on ebay. Les looked over it and said it looks like it sat in a window for a while but it is unsmoked. I will be having a new tapered cumberland stem and change the band out for a...
I have had many Dunhills in the past. MOstly 5108's and regret selling them. Now I am desiring having a 6102 in either Amber Root, Bruyere, Chestnut, or Cumberland. As a lover of British pipes I really need to add one back to my collection.
Karen was in negotiations with someone about 5 months back and not sure if it went anywhere. The rights to the name and factory might still be for sale. If interested I am sure you could contact her.
No where was I impolite or rude. You are an unknown person expecting a community to trust you. I do group buys from the UK and from Europe on hard to get tobacco all the time for people in the US at no profit or gain to myself. I asked you to state what you were looking for so we could help. And...
Seems like you would try and become a well known and liked member of a community before making such requests. As stated there are retailers in the Uk that will ship directly to you. Maybe let us know what you are looking for and we can help you locate it.
My first Upshall pipes arrived today. I am pretty sure I will sell the bent bulldog. It feels just a bit too small for a group 5. The P grade group 6 bent billiard is perfect size.