Pre-Lane Charatans?

[dutchronin]

Hi all!
I recently bought a batch of pipes for refurbishing and there were two pipes that stood out to me due to the 'strange' shape and the usage. Heavily caked bowls and load of damage from emptying the bowl on an ashtray or something. Most of the markings were difficuly to read or had worn off altogether.
As far as I can make out with my magnifying glass the only remaining markings are:
On one side "GROSVENOR over MADE IN LONDON-ENGLAND"

On the other side "MADE BY HAND"
Since Charatan is the only brand showing up with those terms when searching the net I am almost certain that they are actual Charatan pipes. There is bound to be someone on here that can help me out a bit more :D
Here's the pipes, the dark one in need of love, the lighter one already being treated for those ashtray marks and reamed.

 

[voorhees]

I do believe you have some Charatan seconds, however others may know more. I have a second pipe from that has only "London Specials" but no GBD nomenclature. But knowing that "London Specials" was a GBD line and the associated fonts and size codes match GBD lines.

I know this is not Charatan related, but a lot of the makers did this.

 

[dutchronin]

Thanks for that I was thinking about it being seconds as well. Knowing that Charatan's 'factory' was located at Charatan Street in London, it seems rather logical But, I still hope for a Charatan-expert to give his/her 2 cents on it.

 

[docwatson]

The Grosvenor is a currently made grade/name of Charatan. Not pre-Lane. Charatan pipes NEVER had any fills as what I see in the second pipe in the photograph.

Older pre-Lane Charatan pipes all had shape numbers on them and are quite collectible. Most were quite small compared to many Lane Era Charatan pipes. With a little cleaning up your pipes should be good smokers. I'm not a Charatan expert but have collected the brand for over 30 years and have some knowledge of them.