Just this morning I was rereading an issue of Pipe Friendly (Vol. 2, #4, 1997) and there was a Dunhill press release printed therein called From Motorities To Pipes which included a bit more detailed info than the Pipedia Dunhill timeline that does however include this tidbit:
So, what we can infer from this is that most definitely the Parker brand was being made at the actual Dunhill factory, I'd think.
What is unclear is how long this parallel manufacturing went on and at what time it shifted.
Was Parker subbed out to the Hardcastle factory in 1936?
Or were they continued to be made in parallel with Dunhill pipes at the Forest Road Walthamstow factory which was established around the same time as the 49% holding in Hardcastle occured?
Or had they been made at Notting Hill, which was closed in 1946?
I'd guess Notting Hill more likely, but then again, Parker production could have been spread out between whatever factories were being ran by Dunhill --- I haven't actually handled many old Parkers and have only seen pix online from a fairly limited sample size of the earlier pipes, but I have noted the apparent quality variables, which appear as if some Parkers may have been processed as Dunhills until the very end when for some reason they may have been deemed "failings" and would have been given the same intensive procedural processing that the Dunhill pipes got, while other examples lack such telltale traits with very light blasts and sometimes a notable "pricking" (rustication meant to resemble blasting) of the shank instead of the trademark Dunhill technique of blasting all the way down to the very end of the mortise hole.
With the closure of Notting Hill in 1946, Dunhill production shifted to new premises at Cumberland Road aka the Plaistow factory and remained there for quite some time, until March 1982 when pipe manufacturing was transferred to St. Andrews Road, Walthamstow.
Really I don't actually know much at all and I'm speculating upon the scant resources I have, so take all of this with a grain of salt, I'm certainly no Dunhill expert but I am somewhat of an enthusiast simply because it's all so much fun and Dunhill-lore provides a rich luscious terra to tromp through.
And ol' Alfred invented the sandblasted pipe, or at least popularized it --- which is yet another deeply rich but foggy area which will probably remain unanswered for the ages, the actual real formative history of the sandblasted briar pipe seems elusive...
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The press release from 1997 tells us that "...in 1920 a pipe-bowl turning unit was established at 20 Pancras Road near to King's Cross." and that addy lines up with the earliest Parker addy I've seen, which was this advert from 1924:
What is unclear is how long this parallel manufacturing went on and at what time it shifted.
Was Parker subbed out to the Hardcastle factory in 1936?
Or were they continued to be made in parallel with Dunhill pipes at the Forest Road Walthamstow factory which was established around the same time as the 49% holding in Hardcastle occured?
Or had they been made at Notting Hill, which was closed in 1946?
I'd guess Notting Hill more likely, but then again, Parker production could have been spread out between whatever factories were being ran by Dunhill --- I haven't actually handled many old Parkers and have only seen pix online from a fairly limited sample size of the earlier pipes, but I have noted the apparent quality variables, which appear as if some Parkers may have been processed as Dunhills until the very end when for some reason they may have been deemed "failings" and would have been given the same intensive procedural processing that the Dunhill pipes got, while other examples lack such telltale traits with very light blasts and sometimes a notable "pricking" (rustication meant to resemble blasting) of the shank instead of the trademark Dunhill technique of blasting all the way down to the very end of the mortise hole.
With the closure of Notting Hill in 1946, Dunhill production shifted to new premises at Cumberland Road aka the Plaistow factory and remained there for quite some time, until March 1982 when pipe manufacturing was transferred to St. Andrews Road, Walthamstow.
Really I don't actually know much at all and I'm speculating upon the scant resources I have, so take all of this with a grain of salt, I'm certainly no Dunhill expert but I am somewhat of an enthusiast simply because it's all so much fun and Dunhill-lore provides a rich luscious terra to tromp through.
And ol' Alfred invented the sandblasted pipe, or at least popularized it --- which is yet another deeply rich but foggy area which will probably remain unanswered for the ages, the actual real formative history of the sandblasted briar pipe seems elusive...
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