Calling All You Historian Detective Guys --- True Mystery Dunhill

[georged]

Shape 51161 made in 1978.

I've never seen another, heard of another, or met anyone who has.

No search engine on the Internet ever has, either. (<=== that's crazy, right there)

If it was some freaky one-off special order Quaint shape or something, OK, but it's the exact opposite: Group 5, slender(ish) and graceful, a long smoke from a low-weight pipe, super comfy 1/8 bend, fishtail stem... it's among the most "smokable" pipes I own. I love the thing and have since day one.

Practical + good looking = popular, right?

And the 1970's was a time that Dunhill was trying to maximize revenue...

Weird

Oh yeah, the wood. That it would also make any Scandinavian carvers' highest grade without a second thought, never mind is a one in 50,000 pipe from a factory... nothing coincidental about that, either, I'm sure.

Not.

Any of you historian speculator-izer types care to take a swing at why such an arguably perfect factory pipe---with a shape number---appears to be the only one ever made?

 

[verporchting]

Prototype or something made by an exuberant employee who got reigned in and it never came to fruition?

Rankest speculation on my part and I’ve got nothing else to offer but the pipe is lovely and I can’t imagine anyone seeing that and not thinking “Winner!”

 

[sablebrush52]

It having a model number suggests that it was some sort of regular production. Have you contacted Dunhill regarding this pipe? They used to have an archivist who could help with questions like this, but that was decades ago. Maybe they still do or can direct you to someone who can help you.

 

[OzPiper]

That birdseye grain (on both flanks) is spectacular

 

[didimauw]

Sorry I got lost gazing into the grain. What was the question again?

 

[bullet08]

Superb birdseye.

 

[lraisch]

+1 for the gorgeous birdseye grain. The shape is a little Danish to my eye with the bowl a little taller than a billiard, but the graceful curve of the stem looks extremely comfortable either to clench or hold. A lovely pipe!

 

[Ahi Ka]

Very very nice. Did you see there are a couple of 5116 versions online after they went to 4 digit shapes? Though they are both very poor examples of the shape compared to your one. Almost a different model entirely.

 

[georged]

Very very nice. Did you see there are a couple of 5116 versions online after they went to 4 digit shapes? Though they are both very poor examples of the shape compared to your one. Almost a different model entirely.

Definitely different enough to merit a completely different number, for sure.

Which in a way only makes the situation even more weird...

Wait

I know!

It's a MAGIC pipe! After smoking it 1000 times a genie will appear who will grant me three wishes!

Guess i better get busy...

 

[guylesss]

It having a model number suggests that it was some sort of regular production. Have you contacted Dunhill regarding this pipe? They used to have an archivist who could help with questions like this, but that was decades ago. Maybe they still do or can direct you to someone who can help you.

Sad to say Jesse, Dunhill laid off its last archivist some years ago. And insofar as I know Yang (aka here as "forciori")-- whose interest in pipes waned a couple of years ago--was the last person to cultivate an inside source at Dunhill, called Mr Hener (described by Yang as director of pipe production).

Yang in a post here a couple of years ago finally cleared up the mystery of the final digit of Dunhill's short-lived, mid-1970s 5-digit nomenclature.

The 5th digit :: General Pipe Smoking Discussion

I've been researching a lot about the history of Dunhill, but the information is fuzzy, therefore, unreliable. In several places, the fifth digit was not a pacified thing. I decided to clarify all my doubts about the nomenclatures of the brand with someone who is the director of the production...

pipesmagazine.com

So, as @Ahi Ka suggests, at least some 5116 Dunhills are meant to be the same model as George's 51161 pipe, even if his is absolutely stunning and the later examples are anything but.

 

[Ahi Ka]

Definitely different enough to merit a completely different number, for sure.

Which in a way only makes the situation even more weird...

Wait

I know!

It's a MAGIC pipe! After smoking it 1000 times a genie will appear who will grant me three wishes!

Guess i better get busy...

Send it to Jim and he will get your genie by the end of the month…though no guarantees he won’t use all the wishes in conjuring up old 3 nuns.

 

[Chasing Embers]

May be a limited run in the Root Briar line, or may just be one of few remaining pieces.

 

[tklee]

Woww...... It has birdseye all over the pipe! Very beautiful!

 

[captpat]

Definitely different enough to merit a completely different number, for sure.

Which in a way only makes the situation even more weird...

Wait

I know!

It's a MAGIC pipe! After smoking it 1000 times a genie will appear who will grant me three wishes!

Guess i better get busy...

Its magic properties are closely related to the substance one smokes in it.

 

[sablebrush52]

Gorgeous pipe. Looks like Guy answered the mystery.

 

[guylesss]

Gorgeous pipe. Looks like Guy answered the mystery.

All credit to Yang.

 

[georged]

All righty, then.

Looks like it was made during a period of change at Dunhill---possibly even a bit of confusion---when the management-decider people and the shop people were trying to simplify things.

Meaning any backstory is possible when it comes to a single specimen.

Maybe made as a trade show piece, or set aside for a VIP a la Savinelli Giubileo D'oro, or something romantic like that. The wood is remarkable, and the shaping definitely shows extra care.

It's also possible that it was made by, and put on Earth by, our friendly UFO Alien representatives and Overwatchers precisely to observe our reaction to it, and relay the information to Beta Cygni. Meaning these guys, of course:

 

[guylesss]

All righty, then.

Looks like it was made during a period of change at Dunhill---possibly even a bit of confusion---when the management-decider people and the shop people were trying to simplify things.

As is often the case, I think John Loring's well-informed speculation may be instructive. His discussion of the batch of unusually large 612 bents made in 1976 (that he likens to pre-war LCs and mini-magnums) has plenty to say about "management" of the period. And especially about their likely imperative to make immediate use of any unusually fine blocks of briar that was sitting idle in inventory.

https://pipedia.org/wiki/The_Poor_Man%27s_Dunhill_Mini-Magnum_--_The_1976_Jumbo

 

[peteguy]

So bowl shape within a given line. Interesting and awesome job on the research in the other thread.

 

[Ahi Ka]

@georged if we are gonna open up the possibility of extraterrestrial provenance, then I would like to table another narrative.

This pipe is actually a pipe which Lee made for himself and left unstamped apart from the date he prophesied for his eventual death - November 5th 1961. He foretold that he would pass in the mother land chocking on a mushy pea with his chips and left without any vinegar to wash it down.

This explains the correct order of the date numerals, and obviously why the pipe was not sold he under his own brand as he fitted it with an inferior push tenon. And also provides probable cause for how it ended in the hands of a greasy ex-Dunhill factory worker who managed to flog some stamps and a spare bit of white spot rod to increase its value on eBay. If only he had the foresight to use a “not for sale” stamp too it would have gone for much more.