Dunhill with Few Markings --- Date is a Mystery

[georged]

I posted this pipe to the board about five years ago, but a bunch of new people have shown up since then and one of 'em might know something the last bunch didn't.

It's a lovely, light weight Group 3 (though it's stamped with a 4), and nothing else on it except...


DUNHILL
LONDON

MADE IN ENGLAND


...on the bamboo shank itself. No nomenclature on the briar.

I figure it was made after WWII and before Dunhill's blasting lost significant character in the 1960's.

Any ideas?

 

[TheIronMonkey]

SPC had a Whangee from 1961, and LJ Peretti has one in stock right now, but, no date.

There were a lot of pipes that were part of the bamboo craze in the ‘60s.

 

[guylesss]

@jguss and I briefly delved into the utterly riveting topic of whangee nomenclature back in April this year, and decided that it's all something of a nightmare for anyone keen on confidently dating a particular pipe--and even with the earlier ones with a legible date code, deciding if it's from the 50s or 60s can be tough.

The circled 4 and the placement of info on the shank and stem, and not the stummel, makes pretty much certain yours is a (post-1951) early 50s example. Beyond that, I suspect the answer is who knows.

Loring (whom I have invoked rather a lot today) said this:

Other shank material included bamboo shanks. Pipes having a bamboo shank were generally stamped with a "W" to indicate the same. Bamboo shanks became somewhat popular in the 1960's and 1970's. The bamboo churchwarden was made in limited numbers in the early 1950s, then again in the early 1960s and lastly in the 1990s. The 'quick & dirty' way of distinguishing between the three generations is: In the early 1950's the DUNHILL / MADE IN ENGLAND stamp is found on the underside of the bit, in the early 1960's that stamp is on the bottom of the briar bowl and in the 1990s a modern shape number, not e.g. W56, is used.

It's a really pretty pipe, George, and the blast is lovely. Certainly consistent with the late 1940s and early 1950s shell pipes I own.

 

[ssjones]

How difficult was stamping nomenclature on the bamboo section? (I'm surprised it survived)