Latest Find: Old, Odd Shape, Black Spot Dunhill

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Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
43,253
108,358
The hole the dot is inserted in was likely drilled into the airway and the dot slowly absorbed all of the tar and nicotine flowing through the airway in the smoke. Even with shape oddities like sideways bent pipes and skulls, Dunhill's pride was in that dot being white.
 
May 8, 2017
1,593
1,627
Sugar Grove, IL, USA
Nice score! 1925 ES. It's been well-loved, for sure. The black dot is, irrc, a result of simply smoking. The dots were made of a form of cellulose and were porous. @georged can either confirm or correct me as necessary. If you have no experience actually restoring pipes, I'd recommend having it done professionally. Depending on the condition, it may well be worth the cost of a proper restoration, which might include a new mouthpiece.

I'm curious. If you turn the pipe over and look at the underside of the mouthpiece, do you see a patent number stamped near the shank?
 

Alejo R.

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 13, 2020
832
1,643
48
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Nice score! 1925 ES. It's been well-loved, for sure. The black dot is, irrc, a result of simply smoking. The dots were made of a form of cellulose and were porous. @georged can either confirm or correct me as necessary. If you have no experience actually restoring pipes, I'd recommend having it done professionally. Depending on the condition, it may well be worth the cost of a proper restoration, which might include a new mouthpiece.

I'm curious. If you turn the pipe over and look at the underside of the mouthpiece, do you see a patent number stamped near the shank?
Looks like it was something there, but lost lint time ago.2022-01-31_07-51-47.png
 

ssjones

Moderator
Staff member
May 11, 2011
18,322
11,087
Maryland
postimg.cc
The stem will obviously need restored using normal means. That typically shines up any inserts. But I suspect the use has permeated up thru the rod, so the black is simply not just topical. George D will know if it can be addressed, but I doubt it. I say wear it well, it looks to have been earned!

I'm not great at decoding dates, those are fuzzy to my eye - is the date 1936 or 1946?
 

Alejo R.

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 13, 2020
832
1,643
48
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The stem will obviously need restored using normal means. That typically shines up any inserts. But I suspect the use has permeated up thru the rod, so the black is simply not just topical. George D will know if it can be addressed, but I doubt it. I say wear it well, it looks to have been earned!

I'm not great at decoding dates, those are fuzzy to my eye - is the date 1936 or 1946?
It's from the 1920s.
 
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May 8, 2017
1,593
1,627
Sugar Grove, IL, USA
The dating is a little tough on this one. I previously stated that I thought it was from 1925, but it lacks the "Inner Tube" stamp I would have expected in 1925. Also, the fishtail mouthpiece suggests post-1920s. The numbers on the shank look like underlined 3 following the patent and underlined 5 closer to the Made In stamp. But the underline beneath the 3 looks too long, like maybe it was 13. The stem looks like it has TWO patent numbers to me. One may be 5861/12, which ran from 1913-1927, and the other 1343253/20, which ran from 1927-1942, while the patent on the shank is 116989/17, which ran from 1918-1934/5. The overlapping years would have been 1927-1934/5. So, I am guessing that this pipe was made in 1933 and sold in 1935. However, that doesn't quite work, either, since the "Inner Tube" stamp persisted until 1935. So, why would it be missing from a pipe made in 1933 and sold in 1935? Still, my best guess is now 1935.
 

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,491
13,920
Definitely not a fake. Explanation(s) of the assorted stamping details will forever be conjecture. Hardly unique in that way, though. Inconsistencies abound on legit specimens. (I imagine keeping everything straight all day every day in Dunhill's small stamping room---a bench and chair surrounded on all sides by hundreds of stamps arranged like library shelves---was literally impossible for a human to manage).

The black dot is consistent with the pipe's size and shank shape. A small Canadian's stem material thickness at the "dot point" is about 1.5 - 2.0 mm... Drilling a hole that does NOT go through to the airway would take a lot of care and paying attention. In the course of a batch several assuredly did. Of those, this one was smoked hard enough and long enough for the "wick trick" to occur.