Charatan Collection
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An incredible find,
truly a once-in-a-lifetime type of thing!
Love the letter most especially.
Thanks for sharing,
a joy to see.
:
:
truly a once-in-a-lifetime type of thing!
Love the letter most especially.
Thanks for sharing,
a joy to see.
:
:
I am wondering how many readers know about the International Charatan Collector Society (ICCS) that meets at the Chicago and Las Vegas shows. Member ship is easy. Just bring a minimum of 5 Charatans to display at the Chicago or LAS Vegas meetings and let Dennis Congos know that you want to be a member. He will add you to the ICCS directory. At each meeting there is judging of 21 qualities of Charatans and awards respectively. Annual dues are $10 and are optional. If anyone has any questions, email Dennis at dcongos@mail.ucf.edu.
I've yet to hit the magic 5 Charatan minimum, but I never miss an opportunity to stop by Dennis Congos table at a pipe show - he is Mr. Charatan in my book!
It seems that some of these pipes are already stamped and I am imagining that some need finishing and then selected into their respective grades. I am glad that Dennis is inspecting them as he supervised all the grade- selecting during this epoch. I have just remembered the name of the other 'selector' besides Maureen. I think his name was Chera Singh. Maureen was trained by Dennis in the art of selecting the Charatan freehand grades and the very finest pieces would have gone into Dennis's office and both Dennis and Maureen would go through the selecting process based on grain, shape, balance, small sandspots, watermarks and other criteria. Then they would be stamped by Noreen or Chera. Noreen's name just popped into my head just now. I have not recalled these names for 44 years - how amazing is that? My opinion is that Dennis needs to select the qualities of these pipes and the next challenge would be to locate the grading stamps from that era.
Chaps,
Sorry for not reporting back sooner - new job and lots of travelling.
Ken, you are spot on regarding the stamping and finishing. I got the pipes back from John Marshall last week and they are fantastic. I'll post some pics once I have taken ones good enough to do them justice. Dennis has graded them and given his opinion in general. The large freehand is graded as a Supreme and he thinks it was carved by Stan Haney, it has the "Charatan's Make" stamp and Supreme underneath but nothing else either on the bowl or the stem. Several others are graded as Selected and Executive, the majority being Special's. The final buffing that John has given them has brought the grain out beautifully. He has also buffed the stems on those that needed it which has put the finishing touches on them. I guess that in the last few days of production all sorts of things were going awry with stamping and finishing and no doubt there would have been a good deal of work in progress left hanging about in various stages of being finished. I couldn't get up to London to see John personally so a good friend who knows John quite well went instead and spent an hour and a half at his stall - in February!
There are a couple of pipes that seem to be a bit of an enigma - a very good straight grain (although a bit weak) with a DC stem but a carbonized bowl. John said that this would have been a Ben Wade pipe but it shouldn't have had the DC stem. I haven't got to the bottom of the of the hurricane style pipe yet either - the only other one I have seen has a bakelite cover, but this one is made from briar. John could offer no explanation nor further information though. Dennis refused to grade the Ben Wade (I don't know if Ben Wade had a grading system) and one or two of the unfinished pipes as he could not guarantee that they are real Charatan's. Big respect for his integrity!
Dhcongos, I am aware of the ICCS and the entry requirements. When I next visit the States I will try to arrange it so that I can get to the Chicago show and bring the pipes with me! There doesn't seem to be anything like it in the UK of course! if you know of a UK branch or anything similar, please let me know (apart from this collection, I have several other Charatan's).
I'm still trying to locate Barry Jones, but just haven't had time to pursue this avenue recently.
Sorry for not reporting back sooner - new job and lots of travelling.
Ken, you are spot on regarding the stamping and finishing. I got the pipes back from John Marshall last week and they are fantastic. I'll post some pics once I have taken ones good enough to do them justice. Dennis has graded them and given his opinion in general. The large freehand is graded as a Supreme and he thinks it was carved by Stan Haney, it has the "Charatan's Make" stamp and Supreme underneath but nothing else either on the bowl or the stem. Several others are graded as Selected and Executive, the majority being Special's. The final buffing that John has given them has brought the grain out beautifully. He has also buffed the stems on those that needed it which has put the finishing touches on them. I guess that in the last few days of production all sorts of things were going awry with stamping and finishing and no doubt there would have been a good deal of work in progress left hanging about in various stages of being finished. I couldn't get up to London to see John personally so a good friend who knows John quite well went instead and spent an hour and a half at his stall - in February!
There are a couple of pipes that seem to be a bit of an enigma - a very good straight grain (although a bit weak) with a DC stem but a carbonized bowl. John said that this would have been a Ben Wade pipe but it shouldn't have had the DC stem. I haven't got to the bottom of the of the hurricane style pipe yet either - the only other one I have seen has a bakelite cover, but this one is made from briar. John could offer no explanation nor further information though. Dennis refused to grade the Ben Wade (I don't know if Ben Wade had a grading system) and one or two of the unfinished pipes as he could not guarantee that they are real Charatan's. Big respect for his integrity!
Dhcongos, I am aware of the ICCS and the entry requirements. When I next visit the States I will try to arrange it so that I can get to the Chicago show and bring the pipes with me! There doesn't seem to be anything like it in the UK of course! if you know of a UK branch or anything similar, please let me know (apart from this collection, I have several other Charatan's).
I'm still trying to locate Barry Jones, but just haven't had time to pursue this avenue recently.
I don't know how I missed this wonderful saga for so long. Thank you for bringing us along for the journey!
I forgot to mention that the huge bulldog pipe behind the freehand plateau in the pics had a fault inside the bowl. John Marshall carbonized the bowl and downgraded it to a Ben Wade. He did say that Dan Tennyson carved a good number of the extra large and giant pipes but couldn't say for sure if he had carved this one.
Brillaint stuff Bob. I am so pleased that Dennis was able to see them and express his views. The Stan Haney turnings were so stylised- he was a brilliant freehand turner. It would be great if you would take a few individual closeup shots of the ones that 'jump out at you', like the Supreme for example. I am really looking forward to seeing these photos.
Sorry about the poor quality pics - I really aught to buy a camera.
The freehand plateau is HUGE. The bowl is 3" deep, 2" in diameter and the chamber 1" in diameter. It has straight grain running from the bottom of the bowl to to rim. The pipe is stamped:
Charatan's Make
London, England
Supreme
but nothing else, no stamp on the stem etc.
The billiard is also a good size but nowhere near as big as the freehand. It is stamped
Charatan's Make
London, England
Selected
It has the CP stamp on the stem but no shape number nor anything else. The grain on it is superb but the pics are not good enough to show this.
The freehand plateau is HUGE. The bowl is 3" deep, 2" in diameter and the chamber 1" in diameter. It has straight grain running from the bottom of the bowl to to rim. The pipe is stamped:
Charatan's Make
London, England
Supreme
but nothing else, no stamp on the stem etc.
The billiard is also a good size but nowhere near as big as the freehand. It is stamped
Charatan's Make
London, England
Selected
It has the CP stamp on the stem but no shape number nor anything else. The grain on it is superb but the pics are not good enough to show this.
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To get photos to load quickly and show in the post, you first have to upload the photo to this site.
1.) Login
2.) Go to My Account (may have hit Home button first) and mouse down to Album.
3.) Choose Upload Picture (navigate to photo you've given a sensible name to), be sure to then hit Upload.
4.) Go back to Album, click on thumbnail to open full size image. Right click (Windows); Control Click (Mac) and select "copy image location" (its URL).
5.) Return to your reply window in the thread and click on the IMG buttont at the top of the compose window.
7.) Paste the image location into the window and click OK.
The method of Control (Mac) or Right (Windows) click on an image will work for images in most photo hosting sites such as Imgur.
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