Received My GBDs

[aquadoc]

I am pleased with the purchase but the inner bevel of the Sitter was mucked up a tiny bit by whomever used a reamer. Not bad but I do not feel comfortable to attempt to recut it.
So the sitter has Conquest over GBD over New Era and on opposite side, London England over 9609.
The bent has GBD over Garland and on the opposite side London England over 508.
After all of the reading and some questions to various folks, the latest these are likely made was the 60s and the earliest was late 40s. In any case, They are dwarfed by the Mountbatten at the bottom I included for scale. I can't decide which I prefer... Pretty much a tie. No fills that I can find. A few small wear scratches that a good buffer will fix. The Perspex stem us amazingly clean. Now to give them a salt soak.

 

[mso489]

Very nice set. The sitter is really nifty, but the bent ones look like great smokers too.

 

[ssjones]

Very interesting!
On the 9609 (Poker or Cherrywood)

Conquest - this is the smallest of the three oversize stamps

Is the band GBD stamped?

 

[pagan]

Nice pipes, Im sure they will smoke well for you :puffpipe:

 

[papipeguy]

Very nice group. Happy smoke rings.

 

[aquadoc]

Al, I will check for hallmarks when I make it home. I do not think so. But the metal acts like sterling. I need some HNO3.

 

[sallow]

Very handsome pipes, well done.
I am certain my GBD is out there, somewhere, just waiting.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Great pipes!

 

[aquadoc]

Al, It has "Sterling Silver" written in a semi-arc facing the shank and on top of the ring. The last part of the silver word has just about been polished off. I see a faint series of blocks that could have been hallmarks but they are unreadable. These are located on the opposite side from the sterling silver inscription.

 

[aquadoc]

It is amazing what you miss when you are not looking for detail. I think I may have gotten a bargain.

 

[aquadoc]

Another question, what do individual letter stamps on the shank designate?

 

[jensen]

I think it is a production code. They began with that when production moved to the earlier Orlik factory in South End on Sea about 1980.

Without looking after I remember having pipes stamped H, M, J, E, R.
But it could be bowl grading. My E is a BBB Perfect Make, R an Comoy London Pride and H an Everyman.

 

[aquadoc]

There are alphanumeric codes on pipes from much earlier production if 2 different discussions on Reddit are correct. I do not have a pipe with one but wondered because there have been some pipes on ebay with a leading letter on shape numbers.

 

[ssjones]

The 1930's pipes all seem have R designations.

Later model pipes seem to have various letters, as do Comoy's of that era. I made the same assumption as Jensen.
Like this Topaz that Steve Laug recently finished (P on the shank)

https://rebornpipes.com/2017/05/13/freshening-up-a-gbd-topaz-559-bulldog/

 

[aquadoc]

How can a company that produced so many pipes not leave some paper trail to what the codes mean, how to determine year of production, etc.? Bizarre. BTW, that is a nice Bulldog.

 

[jensen]

Go and ask them. Cadogan used to have office at 38 Finsbury Square London EC

 

[aquadoc]

Just booked my flight.

 

[fitzy]

Nice pipes. I don't know the first thing about them. lol

 

[deleon]

Nice GBD pipes congrats!

 

[ssjones]

I guess in that era, those kind of details (nomenclature) wasn't that noteworthy.

Bill Unger was supposed to write the GBD book, but that never happened.

The only book on GBD, "The St. Claude Story" focuses primarily on the financial end of the business.