Apparently Dunhill Made a Pipe I Would Keep..
- Thread starter Chasing Embers
- Start date
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This is a non-Dunhill example of this kind of pipe. I had this on my watchlist for quite some time and I think it once disappeared without being sold.
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I normally prefer a more anatomically correct skull pipe but given Dunhill's generic shaping, their skull wouldn't leave my collection like the other ones did. I do have this skull though.This is a non-Dunhill example of this kind of pipe. I had this on my watchlist for quite some time and I think it once disappeared without being sold.
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Just to follow the sociology of marketing here, a 1937 Dunhill would have come long before Dunhill's ascent into the carriage trade luxury market. On into the 1950's, Dunhill pipes were second fiddle to Kaywoodie, the premier brand, and both were still in easy price range of the ambitious young salary-man or wage earner, not a declaration of having arrived. I've seen several Dunhill pipes of earlier eras that seem like individual expressions of in-house carvers, not part of the standard line of traditional classic shapes, so I'd put this in that category. They now make the "microphone" shape which isn't exactly in the fine old tradition, but they charge well over a grand for it, so it represents high flying spending.
Or chasing a high dollar pipe with the romantic notion that it has to provide a better smoke.
There was a Wally Frank on ecrap back a few years that was a dead ringer for that. Interesting.
I'm looking for a list of figural briar shapes that Dunhill has sold. Loring has some photos on the internet of some examples (listed below), but I don't think it's exhaustive. Most, if not all, of these were designed by Lamberthod, but I have examples stamped Sommers and Ropp, so I think Lamberthod used his machine to create 'rough' versions which he sold to various pipemakers for finishing. I've indicated below the ones that I know Lamberthod designed, but if someone else has evidence that I'm incorrect, please post up. Lamberthod also created a Voltaire design that I have an example of, and that I'm guessing was in the Dunhill catalog at some point.
Figural briars Loring lists as sold by Dunhill:
Figural briars Loring lists as sold by Dunhill:
- Verdi (Lamberthod design)
- Vercingetorix (Lamberthod design)
- Bacchus (Lamberthod design)
- Bacchiante (Lamberthod design)
- Skull
- unknown statesman
- Cavalier (Lamberthod design)
I thought the microphones where all gifts. Not for the general market. I thought they where only for purchase ever as an estate purchase.
The missing teeth are details most carvers wouldn't even think of. Not my cup o'tea bit, nicely executed.
The Dunhill skull is perplexing - all of the carved figurals they offered were top-notch except the skull. If you look at the skulls from that period that were carved from meerschaum, the difference is stunning. But, it appears that all the Dunhill figural briar pipes began life on Lamberthod's machine, which created 8 rough pipes at a time from a large aluminum model (see PetersonPipeNotes blog on the subject). I guess they were happy with the original model and never changed it.
