Merryman London made pipe

[jaingorenard]

I got this pipe recently along with a couple of others that I wanted. I wasn't expecting much, but underneath the dirt it has a lovely deep blast, and it's very lightly smoked.

Try as I might, I can't find any information about it. I wonder if it's a Sasieni second, purely based on the font and style of the stamping, but just wondered if anyone else had come across one.

 

[ssjones]

Who Made That Pipe shows two entities, with seemingly no other line connection. That is a great looking sandblast!

 

[ssjones]

I can't locate anything on either of those two companies, but I bet @J. Guss can!

 

[jaingorenard]

Who Made That Pipe shows two entities, with seemingly no other line connection. That is a great looking sandblast!

View attachment 211559

Thanks, that's interesting! The other pipes it came with are all 1950s, so I'm assuming it's a similar age. There was also a Dunhill Root Briar from 1954, but it's been smoked to death.

 

[greeneyes]

@jguss

 

[doctorbob]

Good old Britwood, nice acquisition.

 

[kcghost]

It does look quite nice and for the price it's golden.

 

[greeneyes]

"Who Made That Pipe" is unfortunately (but very understandably) full of spelling mistakes---

Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News - Friday 15 November 1935​

 

[greeneyes]

1935

 

[greeneyes]

Now, N.R. Silverstone Ltd. are apparently still around, and have been tobacco importers since 1919.

"1919 London cigar importer N.R. Silverstone founded by Nat Silverstone. Still operating in 2000."

UK importers of Cuban Saint Luis Rey.

Tracking down a catalogue of pipes they may have had on offer will be a bit challenging I'm guessing.

 

[jaingorenard]

Now, N.R. Silverstone Ltd. are apparently still around, and have been tobacco importers since 1919.

"1919 London cigar importer N.R. Silverstone founded by Nat Silverstone. Still operating in 2000."

UK importers of Cuban Saint Luis Rey.

Tracking down a catalogue of pipes they may have had on offer will be a bit challenging I'm guessing.

Thanks for all that, really interesting! I tried ringing a number I found for them but it was invalid.

 

[jaingorenard]

Although one website showed them as still active in 2022, Companies House shows them as dissolved in 2018.

 

[jguss]

Although one website showed them as still active in 2022, Companies House shows them as dissolved in 2018.

Not at all clear that's the same entity; if you look at the original filing it was called Voucherwave and was formed for the purpose of making and selling engineering equipment and providing various engineering services:



The name was changed from Voucherware to N R Silverstone Ltd two months after it was founded.

On the one hand it's tough to imagine a business further away from a cigar and other tobacco wholesaler than an engineering company; on the other it's hard to believe that too many businesses named N R Silverstone Ltd were floating around.

Note also, by the way, was established in 1978, at which time N R Silverstone was still clearly in the tobacco importation business and located at 12 Charing Cross Road (see 1978 London telephone directory listing below):



Creating theories would be easy, but absent proof it's a bit puzzling to say the least.

 

[jaingorenard]

Not at all clear that's the same entity; if you look at the original filing it was called Voucherwave and was formed for the purpose of making and selling engineering equipment and providing various engineering services:

View attachment 211794

The name was changed from Voucherware to N R Silverstone Ltd two months after it was founded.

On the one hand it's tough to imagine a business further away from a cigar and other tobacco wholesaler than an engineering company; on the other it's hard to believe that too many businesses named N R Silverstone Ltd were floating around.

Note also, by the way, was established in 1978, at which time N R Silverstone was still clearly in the tobacco importation business and located at 12 Charing Cross Road (see 1978 London telephone directory listing below):

View attachment 211797

Creating theories would be easy, but absent proof it's a bit puzzling to say the least.

Really interesting! Shame it doesn't list any directors.

 

[jguss]

Really interesting! Shame it doesn't list any directors.

It does actually; most are unrelated but Nat Silverstone did indeed serve as a director for a while. So there's clearly a link but its exact nature is a bit obscure.

 

[jaingorenard]

It does actually; most are unrelated but Nat Silverstone did indeed serve as a director for a while. So there's clearly a link but its exact nature is a bit obscure.

Ah, I missed that!

 

[jguss]

There’s a limited amount I can add to what greeneyes posted. As you now know Merryman, Browne & Co was a cigar merchant who also sold cigarettes and a few pipe tobacco mixtures. In addition as greeneyes showed they offered several models of briar pipes. The footprint they left behind is limited in depth and duration. Merryman, Browne appeared in London phone books for just a few years, from 1934-1937. Originally occupying a location at 2 Green Street by 1935 they were also listed at 61 Bread Street and 46A Broadway in Westminster. And by the end of that year they had relocated to Eagle House at 110 Jermyn Street where they remained for the next two years after which they disappeared.

What happened to MB after 1937 and why is unclear. Their disappearance from London telephone books on the one hand and fancy goods trade directories on the other suggests the business was sold. But to whom? N R Silverstone is certainly the logical buyer since it wound up with the brand at a later point, but what makes this a little puzzling is the lengthy hiatus of about a dozen years before the Merryman brand reappeared under new ownership. As noted N R Silverstone Ltd was a cigar importer and merchant, founded and owned at least in part by Nathaniel Ralph Silverstone (1899-1991). Silverstone, by the way, first appears as a cigar importer at 1 Nichols Sq in 1925 and by 1930 had moved to 14 Charing Cross Rd where he remained for a number of years before settling next door at 12 Charing Cross Rd. Surviving a detour into bankruptcy between 1932-34 N R Silverstone Ltd managed to stay in business into the 21st century. To what degree the bankruptcy served as a catalyst to dilute Nat Silverstone's ownership, like so much else here, is unclear.

As for the Merryman brand the first time I found it listed in trade directories after 1937 was 1949, by which time the brand is owned by N R Silverstone. The interesting omission is for 1938-39. Why the new owner wouldn't have listed the pipe then is a bit of a mystery; why it wouldn't have been listed later is not. I should mention that I have a gap of directories between 1942 and 1948 (I have price lists covering part of that period which are much less inclusive than brand directories and as a result omissions are less consequential). I don't view the 1942-1948 gap as particularly important first because for the earlier period it's important to recall that few if any new pipe models were launched during the war. On the contrary most pipe manufacturers skinnied their product line significantly as a result of perennial shortages of briar, vulcanite and skilled labor. So even if I had directories for 1942-1945 (and I suspect they weren't even published in some of those years) I'd be surprised to find newly launched models of any kind. As for 1946-1948 a study of the trade makes it clear that it took several years for the industry to lurch back to life after the war in Europe ended, with even a semblance of normalcy only kicking in after reconversion was complete in the late forties. So my suspicion is that if 1949 wasn't the first year N R Silverstone sold the Merryman it can't have started much earlier than that. The Merryman pipe continued to appear in brand directories, by the way, at least until the 1970s. Given that the rest of the pipes you acquired appeared to date from the 1950s it's a good guess that your Merryman pipe did too.

 

[jaingorenard]

There’s a limited amount I can add to what greeneyes posted. As you now know Merryman, Browne & Co was a cigar merchant who also sold cigarettes and a few pipe tobacco mixtures. In addition as greeneyes showed they offered several models of briar pipes. The footprint they left behind is limited in depth and duration. Merryman, Browne appeared in London phone books for just a few years, from 1934-1937. Originally occupying a location at 2 Green Street by 1935 they were also listed at 61 Bread Street and 46A Broadway in Westminster. And by the end of that year they had relocated to Eagle House at 110 Jermyn Street where they remained for the next two years after which they disappeared.

What happened to MB after 1937 and why is unclear. Their disappearance from London telephone books on the one hand and fancy goods trade directories on the other suggests the business was sold. But to whom? N R Silverstone is certainly the logical buyer since it wound up with the brand at a later point, but what makes this a little puzzling is the lengthy hiatus of about a dozen years before the Merryman brand reappeared under new ownership. As noted N R Silverstone Ltd was a cigar importer and merchant, founded and owned at least in part by Nathaniel Ralph Silverstone (1899-1991). Silverstone, by the way, first appears as a cigar importer at 1 Nichols Sq in 1925 and by 1930 had moved to 14 Charing Cross Rd where he remained for a number of years before settling next door at 12 Charing Cross Rd. Surviving a detour into bankruptcy between 1932-34 N R Silverstone Ltd managed to stay in business into the 21st century. To what degree the bankruptcy served as a catalyst to dilute Nat Silverstone's ownership, like so much else here, is unclear.

As for the Merryman brand the first time I found it listed in trade directories after 1937 was 1949, by which time the brand is owned by N R Silverstone. The interesting omission is for 1938-39. Why the new owner wouldn't have listed the pipe then is a bit of a mystery; why it wouldn't have been listed later is not. I should mention that I have a gap of directories between 1942 and 1948 (I have price lists covering part of that period which are much less inclusive than brand directories and as a result omissions are less consequential). I don't view the 1942-1948 gap as particularly important first because for the earlier period it's important to recall that few if any new pipe models were launched during the war. On the contrary most pipe manufacturers skinnied their product line significantly as a result of perennial shortages of briar, vulcanite and skilled labor. So even if I had directories for 1942-1945 (and I suspect they weren't even published in some of those years) I'd be surprised to find newly launched models of any kind. As for 1946-1948 a study of the trade makes it clear that it took several years for the industry to lurch back to life after the war in Europe ended, with even a semblance of normalcy only kicking in after reconversion was complete in the late forties. So my suspicion is that if 1949 wasn't the first year N R Silverstone sold the Merryman it can't have started much earlier than that. The Merryman pipe continued to appear in brand directories, by the way, at least until the 1970s. Given that the rest of the pipes you acquired appeared to date from the 1950s it's a good guess that your Merryman pipe did too.

This is brilliant, thank you. Really interesting.

I think it will be a really nice pipe once it's cleaned up, I'd certainly be happy to find more of them!