Charatan 292 Dating Help?

[trubka2]

I just won this pipe last night. I love it in the seller's pics (below), but it's my first Charatan, and I'm not sure what I've got coming or whether I made a good buy. It was kind of an impulse buy done way too late at night. I read Ferrara's dating guide, which seems very straightforward. Is it considered accurate/authoritative? If I read Ferrara correctly, his guide puts this pipe in the late Reuben era (after pipes imported to America started to get the Lane symbol, but before Lane bought the company, 1955-60). Two questions:

1. Ferrara (or his translator) says, "The CP logo is finer than in following eras." I've compared with photos of Lane-era pipes, and I can't tell what's "fine" and what's not. They don't seem to be very consistent. Is the logo here "fine" or "thick"?

2. Ferrara also says Reuben-era pipes can be identified by "Absence of the letter X on the shape code engraved on the shank (for ex. 2502 and not 2502X)" and "Absence of letters DC after the shape number (for ex. 2502 and not 2505DC)". Does that mean that the letters could be absent on pre-1960 pipes (i.e. some had them, and some didn't), or that any pipe that doesn't have the letters and isn't a comfort stem must be pre-1960?

I'm sure there's a hundred other things I'm overlooking. Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[craig61a]

Looks like a ‘55 to ‘60 to me...

 

[trubka2]

Thanks, craig 61a. I hope we're right. I love pipes that have been around for a while, but most of my pipes don't go back past the half-century mark, so this is an old one for me.

 

[kenbarnes]

I would date it around 1967 as I think Barry told me that this was when he remembers the shape nos include the size (group no.) in front of the shape number. i.e. this shape no. 92 had a 2 stamped in front of it to denote it was a group 2 (fairly small). I

 

[kenbarnes]

...(some error uploading what I wanted to say) ....... It is one of the first though because soon after this date they moved the stamping from this part of the shank to the reverse side. This was partly due to giving some room in case a silver mount was added to the pipe which usually occurred after the pipe was stamped. Another reason for changing the position of this stamp was that the stamping machine they used then would sometimes crack the shank at this point as it is weaker than stamping it elsewhere on the shank.

 

[trubka2]

Many thanks, Mr. Barnes, for taking a look and shedding some light! 1967 it is, then!

Just for fun, here's an image from the 1951 catalog:



It looks like they used to indicate the size with the second digit of the shape number before they started adding the group size before the shape number in '67.

Also interesting that it turns out the "Made by Hand in City of London" stamping referred to in the Charatan dating guides (supposedly a mark of a post-1965 pipe) isn't actually all that useful for dating pipes from the 1960s.

In any case, thanks again for indulging my curiosity. I haven't smoked one yet, but I'll take the 1951 catalog at its word: