Briar Pipes - Ireland - Late 1860s

[Ahi Ka]

The only thing I thought was that the band may have been separate to the internals and stamped with the Sharman stamp later. But as you say with the LB stamp even that couldn't be possible. At least it's not just us mistaking the 1895 stamp for the 1876 stamp - seems common for watch collectors too!

The 1896 Birmingham w has proven to be the date letter which gives me the most grief.

 

[Sobrbiker]

Sitting here after reading through the patent @jguss shared (thank you for that, very interesting stuff), and pondering that if it were an effective design I wouldn’t be here at all to have read it.
I’m talking about pg3, lines 6-8 referring to the chamber that keeps nicotine from reaching the mouth