Charatan Coronation -- One of the Most Perfect Straight Grain Specimens Known

[georged]

Cool that you got to see it in person, Mr. Craig. (That Hanna character is one ill-tempered snarly beast, though... you must have caught him in a good mood.)
I'm thoroughly enjoying the board's recent Charatan interest revival. :clap:
To keep it going, here's the only legit straight grain Charatan I own. Fred eyeballed it at the Chicago show five years or so ago, and said it would make his collection's Top 40 cut. (If a new pipe gets in, the previous #40 gets the boot.)
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/charatan-selected-undergraded-bent-dublin

 

[huntertrw]

Let's just say it had more to do with marketing and maximizing profit...

After re-reading this thread this afternoon I recalled that I had in my archives a copy of a summary of the history of the Charatan pipe collated by Mr. R.J. Noble for for Mr. Basil Sullivan, and which was given to me in 1995 by Mr. Trent McCranie of McCranie's Pipe and Tobacco Shop. Mr. Noble seems to corroborate your opinion.
Mr. Noble stated, in part, "The Supreme S reigned supreme until 1964, the year that Charatan and Herman Lane shocked the pipe world. They unveiled the Charatan Supreme S-100 Freehand, which would sell for a record-shattering $100.00, a retail figure unheard of until that time. Many predicted that this spelled Charatan's doom, feeling that the public would not tolerate such exorbitant prices for smoking pipes." Further on in the summary he wrote, "Beginning shortly after his takeover, and in rapid succession, Lane introduced the S-200, then the S-300, dropped the Supreme S, added the S-150 and the S-250, and then the Coronation. In April, 1968, he brought out, in a full-page New York Times Easter Sunday ad, the Crown Achievement. The initial set was originally priced at ten thousand dollars."
I believe that the S-200 was priced at $200.00, the S-300 at $300.00, and so on, thus it may be fair to say that Mr. Lane was indeed interested in marketing and maximizing profit. Of that, Mr. Noble said, "Values changed after Lane officially took control and after Ken Barnes had been installed in London. Production and marketing quotas were the first order of business. Quality was to find itself in the rumble seat. There is some supposition that the decline really occurred in 1964, when the Surgeon General issued his cigarette edict. However, I don't believe that that was the root of Charatan's problems; and at that time Land hadn't yet taken complete control. It was the world economy and Lane's rapidly expanding marketing which brought the pedigree of pipes to its knees."

...than a supply of extraordinary wood suddenly becoming available.

Coincidentally, Mr. Noble had this to say about that, "Charatan had enjoyed, through Lane's connections, a splendid rapport with the world's foremost supplier of briar, Otto Braum. But this source was threatened by internal strife and by increased demand for choice briar by the Danes and the emerging Italian pipe makers. Wholesale prices soared."
I hope that this information is useful to the discussion.

 

[georged]

To be completely fair to Herman Lane, it has become clear in the 50 years since Charatan jumped down the grading rabbit hole that collectors WANT their world to be that way.
Any discussion of the subject with today's top carvers will elicit a stream of humorous stories about customers (in essence) demanding to pay more for the same pipes, and how bizarre their lines' grading system became to satisfy them.
No small number of collectors want the social status that they believe owning the rare and "unobtainable" gives them, apparently.
Was Herman a keen observer of human behavior and ahead of his time? Or simply a businessman first and a pipe lover second? We'll probably never know.
Waitaminnit... Did Ken Barnes---our Ken Barnes---ever deal with him?

 

[jguss]

Was Herman a keen observer of human behavior and ahead of his time? Or simply a businessman first and a pipe lover second?

I'd say "yes" to the first, at least as far as the pipe world goes. As for the second I have no idea, and am not even sure it's a meaningful question. If you don't make money you aren't going to stay in business. I'm not sure there needs to be a ranking between loving what you do/sell and knowing you have to turn a buck.
As for your info, Hunter, it's very interesting. I tend to believe the statement that after the acquisition by Lane Charatan began to systematically introduce increasingly expensive pipes. But the dates are a bit wrong; I know the 1958 RTDA Almanac showed that Charatan already offered a Supreme at $40, a Supreme-S at $60, and a Supreme S-100 at (you guessed it) $100. This was some 4-5 years before Herman Lane bought the business from Reuben's widow, Esther. More trivially, the briar supplier was Otto Braun (I'm sure Braum was just a typo). I almost always find that contemporaneous information is better than recollections; also that documentary evidence, while of great value, is even more useful when used to verify, supplement, and correct oral testimony.

 

[georged]

 

[huntertrw]

It seems to me that Mr. Lane rolled the dice (and won, albeit temporarily) when he introduced the then-stratospherically-priced Supreme S-100 Freehand and the other subsequently more expensive models. As a keen marketer, perhaps he truly believed that high retail prices denoted high quality in the minds of certain consumers. Certainly Alfred Dunhill before him did, and it worked for him also...at least for a while.

 

[huntertrw]

Concerning Kenneth Barnes (our Ken Barnes' kinsman), Mr. Noble was quite complimentary, writing, "Practically from the time he bought the firm, Lane hired Ken Barnes and placed him in charge of his European operations, based in London. Barnes was a suave retired British colonel, married to an old European friend of Lane. Up until his Lane appointment, Barnes had been closely associated with Bill Barling. He had an excellent background and command of the pipe industry in general. He also added a touch of class to Lane's operation, which was an important asset. Herman Lane was extremely sensitive to image."

 

[coldfront]

THat's something Huh Craig and the cup and saucer.

 

[sablebrush52]

Williamson Barling went to Charatan as general manager after he left Barling, IIRC. He's also listed on the patent for the double comfort stem design.

 

[kenbarnes]

Thank you huntertrw, jguss and others who have contributed to this thread.

I knew Herman Lane slightly, as I had met him on half a dozen occasions but, more importantly, I felt his presence from 1967 – 1977 and experienced the impact he had on our family. He was a ‘tough cookie’ and very passionate about developing his business.

Charatan supplied Lane Ltd with the qualities Supreme and Supreme S and when they arrived in the U.S. Mr. Lane or a member of staff would go through these and add the number stamp to some of these pipes.

When I worked in the packing dept at Charatan for a few months, I would help Leslie Rand make up the shipments for Lane Ltd. One job I had was to stamp the 'L' stamp on all the pipes going to the U.S.. I have only ever seen one Supreme S 100 which was brought into the Jermyn Street shop for repair by a U.S. visitor.

 

[snagstangl]

 

[snagstangl]

1951 Charatan Catalog from pipedia

 

[jrbjr]

Most, bestest draught grain and birdseye on the rim!!

 

[samuelgawith01]

NICE PIECE OF WOOD....THANKS FOR SHARING