My Old Charatan - Looking for opinions

[lucilucius]

it's my pleasure to be here with all of you pipe fellows. As my first post on pipesmagazine, I'd love to show you my Charatan, which I'm very proud of.
it would be my honour to hear some opinions of you guys about it. I will try to take some more pictures later.
cheers,

 

[brassmonkey]

Welcome aboard and great pipe, striking grain

 

[ukbob]

Welcome onboard, that's a nice looking pipe you have there .

 

[bazungu]

Wonderful pipe, I am an absolute sucker for well executed billiards! A charatan with a tapered stem seems to be quite uncommon, and could indicate a pre-lane piece I believe. Curious to see more!

 

[kenbarnes]

Gorgeous Charatan Billiard.

I would love to see a pic of the front side and the stamp marks.

 

[lucilucius]

hi Ken, I have been your admirer for long and it's so wonderful to hear something from you. Here are the pictures you asked for.

 

[danielplainview]

Great looking pipe. Welcome. There’s a wealth of information here.

 

[kenbarnes]

Beautiful, I knew it was a Supreme.

I think that when this pipe was made this was the highest Charatan grade available.

The blocks of briar for the 102 (larger size billiard) in the 1950s used to be selected by Reuben Charatan and he would take the straight grain top grade blocks and turn these orthodox catalogue shapes by hand himself and turn them to the 'exact' measurements shown in this 1951 catalogue (the other blocks would be machine-turned for lesser qualities).

In 1962 and after, these classics in straight grain were things of the past as the 'freehand (FH)' shapes were establishing themselves and it was very, very rare to see a classic billiard in a Supreme quality. Occasionally one would be found in the machine-turned catalogue shapes but I never saw one in this quality in the early to late 1970s.

These classic shapes in straight grain are my most favourite pipes.

 

[kenbarnes]

 

[lucilucius]

lovely.
thank you for providing me such precious information, Ken.
yet here is another Charatan of mine, a Lane-era Belvedere bulldog. Not as extreme as this classic billard but still a nice pipe, I suppose.

 

[mikethompson]

Those are both very nice pipes. The grain on that billiard is beautiful.

 

[Civil War]

Welcome Aboard to the Forums, nice Pipes!

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

Welcome Sir, those are real eye pleasing pipes for sure, big fan of classic English shapes I am.

 

[jpmcwjr]

The billiard is magnificent. Stupendous!

 

[dmcmtk]

That is just a BEAUTIFUL Supreme! :D