Another aquisition
- Thread starter chuckw
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I'd call it a belled dublin.
Henry Willmer was a tier one carver for Charatan's Make before he left to start his own company in 1970. His early pipes, like this one, show the Charatan's Make influence. I have 14 of them and they are excellant smokers.
He did alot of work for shops like Tinderbox, Iwan Reis and Astley. In the early days he had only four grades, AAA, AA, A and AB. Even the AB pipes were about 90% straight grains. The grain you see one this one is consistant all the way around. Sometime in the mid '80s he reorganised and stopped selling to shops. The AAA became AAAA Presention, the AA became AAA and so on.
When he first started, he was selling his pipes for much less that his compitition, Dunhill and Charatan. After the reorganisation, he increased his prices to reflect the quality of the pipes and his customers, being used to the lower prices, bolted. He went out of business in 2006. Chuck Levy of Iwan Reis tried to buy them but they were a hard sell according to Mr. Levy and the deal fell apart.
In my opinion, they are the best kept secret in pipedom.
Henry Willmer was a tier one carver for Charatan's Make before he left to start his own company in 1970. His early pipes, like this one, show the Charatan's Make influence. I have 14 of them and they are excellant smokers.
He did alot of work for shops like Tinderbox, Iwan Reis and Astley. In the early days he had only four grades, AAA, AA, A and AB. Even the AB pipes were about 90% straight grains. The grain you see one this one is consistant all the way around. Sometime in the mid '80s he reorganised and stopped selling to shops. The AAA became AAAA Presention, the AA became AAA and so on.
When he first started, he was selling his pipes for much less that his compitition, Dunhill and Charatan. After the reorganisation, he increased his prices to reflect the quality of the pipes and his customers, being used to the lower prices, bolted. He went out of business in 2006. Chuck Levy of Iwan Reis tried to buy them but they were a hard sell according to Mr. Levy and the deal fell apart.
In my opinion, they are the best kept secret in pipedom.
Nice looking pipe Chuck!
I like that shape and it has some nice looking grain on it as well. The pipe stand that it is sitting on looks pretty nice too. Is it yours or was that from the sellers photo?
I like that shape and it has some nice looking grain on it as well. The pipe stand that it is sitting on looks pretty nice too. Is it yours or was that from the sellers photo?
Chuck, where did you get the stands from?
I love things with pictures of old sailing ships like that, especially if they are pipe related.
I love things with pictures of old sailing ships like that, especially if they are pipe related.
That pipe looks very comfortable.
Like an old friend.
The pipe stand looks to fit beautifully.
I second the motion from Bob; where did you get that stand?
Like an old friend.
The pipe stand looks to fit beautifully.
I second the motion from Bob; where did you get that stand?
I think it's ok to covet them as long as you don't try to nick them when the owner isn't looking! BTW Very nice stands Chuck!
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