Lane Era Charatan

[mlyvers]

nice pipes here guys, i love charatan pipes. i own 9 myself iam currently bidding on 3 charatans on ebay. my current collection consist of: 1 supreme s-100, 1 impreial, 2 specials, 3 belvederes two of which are afterhours. 1 perfection, 1 distinction. 4 of the 9 are lane era. if i get time i will post pics of all 9 pipes.
take care all.
mike.

 

[JimInks]

All my Charatans are Lane era pipes and great smokers. I also have a Charatan second called "Chippendale" that I bought in 1979 and it smokes like a first. In 1981, I bought an unbranded Billiard that the dealer told me was a Charatan second and that he had it for a few years. It smokes as good as the others, which is quite remarkable to me.

 

[mlyvers]

well here are my charatan pipes. hope you all like. iam currently bidding on 3 more charatan pipes on ebay. take care all.
mike.

 

[cigrmaster]

Mike, that is quite the collection, very cool, thanks for sharing it. I ended up picking up an After Hours Distinction grade back then as well. I am out of my British collecting phase but I still enjoy smoking my Charatans.

 

[mlyvers]

hey cigrmaster, your after hours i think is a better grade then mine. i like the grain in your pipe. i see that it is a distinction. i tell ya, iam not sure how long this phase will last, but i have been loving charatans make for over twenty years now. i do enjoy many other pipes though. i like savenelli,ben wade, ect. how many charatans do you own? just curious sir. i hope too win a charatan on ebay this week. iam bidding on 3 right now. i hope your charatans smoke well for you.
take care.
mike.

 

[fnord]

Mike:
Those are beautiful burners. Thanks for sharing the picture.
Fnord.

 

[cigrmaster]

Mike, I own just the three pictured on this thread. All three are fine smokers and I will keep them in the collection for the foreseeable future. Good luck on your auctions, I hope you can get them for the price you want. I have noticed the market is pretty soft on charatans right now, they are a great value for sure.

 

[flmason]

For any questions on Charatan pipes, contact Bob Swanson at Perry White Pipes. He is extremely knowledgeable on Charatan pipes and has many in his collection.
He is a pleasure to speak with.

 

[numbersix]

Nice pipe(s) Harris - beautiful. Those Charatan shapes are classic and the After Hours is stunning!

 

[foggymountain]

My friend and I had several Charatans each, which we bought in the 1950s from the Lane Ltd retail store on 42nd st in NY. They were beautiful pipes, but because the red stain had a strong taste didn't really smoke well for a long time. The breakin period was a few years, as far as taste goes. I wouldn't be surprised if these estate Charatans smoke very well because of their age.

 

[johninkc]

Hi, Harris and all,
I've been collecting Charatan's Make since I came back to the briar in 1999, during the end of my marriage. I have about 60 of them, a few Roughs (they were not sandblasts, but rather carved as I recall), a fair number of Perfections (equal to Dunhill's Bruyere grade), but really, I focus on Executives and Selecteds, with a foray into Supremes, including a Supreme S and a Supreme S100. I have all manner of nomenclature, with pipes from the 50s to Dunhill's takeover.
If you want a superb article on Charatan's Make, hit the internet wayback machine to find RC (Bob) Hamlin's copy of Tad Gage's article in P&T:

http://web.archive.org/web/20070509200644/http://www.pipeguy.com/charatan.htm
I am so glad Chuck Stanion gave Tad and Bob permission to release this into the wild.
I hope all this helps. I have wonderful smokers in my rack of Charatans.
Smoke in peace

 

[ssjones]

Thanks for that article John. I had not yet read that and saved a copy for my files. (will have to print & read, too small print for my laptop screen...)

 

[mlyvers]

great article john, thank you sir. i have a charatans make that is a (imperial), does anyone here know of this pipe? it can be seen in my pic here on this thread. i was told it replaced the (special). iam just curious about that particular pipe. i have never seen a imperial made by charatan. markings on the underside say 4651DC. i would appreciate any info you guys might have on this pipe.
thanks.
mike.

 

[cigrmaster]

john, thanks very much for posting that article, it was great reading. I can totally understand why people collect Charatans. With that history and all the idiosyncrasies to their grading, it must be a lot of fun. I am definitely on the lookout for one of their classic straight grain Dublins, I am a huge fan of that shape and theirs is the quintessential version of it.

 

[orlandofurioso]

Can one of you fellow briar burners tell me what an A on a Executive Lane era pipes means ? It is stamped next to MADE BY HAND on the right site of the stem.

Cheers !

 

[foggymountain]

Lane Limited had a store in 42nd Street in the 1950s. It was one of the pipeshops that I hung out in at the time. As a result I had several Charatans from that period. I do hate to be a spoiler, but they all had a bitter unpleasant taste. I thought it would disappear after a lot of smoking, but it never did. The one exception was a small $20 Canadian, which was one of my best pipes. The bad taste came from the red stain they used. There was so much stain on the larger pipes that they never achieved a good taste. Most likely those that have survived until now have been smoked so much that they have finally overcome the awful taste of that stain.

 

[ssjones]

Can one of you fellow briar burners tell me what an A on a Executive Lane era pipes means ? It is stamped next to MADE BY HAND on the right site of the stem.

Cheers !

I found no reference for a single letter stamp. The boys at Charatan were known for doing some odd things with nomenclature.

 

[tjameson]

Kind of cool having some more history on the 311 and 4211. Harris gifted them to me awhile back and they are nice smokers I was just about to load up the 311 with some St. James Woods!

 

[fnord]

Tucker:
Nice to see you back in the saddle.
We've missed you, bub.
Fnord

 

[tjameson]

Thanks Jim...I actually ended up smoking the St. James in the Ehrlich you sent me. It just seemed right and I wasn't wrong!