Red Dot!?

[dukdalf]

Greetings, all. As a relative newbie on this forum I hesitated in putting this question to you in one of my first posts, but it keeps nagging at me so here goes. For several years I have had this pipe lying about:

Stamped CW51, Dunhill Shell, Made in England 16, R. All very well and nice, but the thing is this Dunhill does not have a white spot. It has a red one. Vividly red, even. Can anyone tell me why this is? One theory I've heard is that it means this pipe was not intended for retail. Thanks for any info you can provide.
Pics:

 

[tokerpipes]

red dot? doesnt sound like a dunhill. there is a site to verify stem markings. i will see if i can find it.
http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/dunhill/index.html
any knowledge if the stem was replaced?

 

[nemrod]

Lots of other makers use red dots (http://www.pipephil.eu/logos/en/dots/do-1dotred.html) but I don't think I've seen a Dunhill with one. Then again I haven't seen many Dunhills. It would make sense if the stem had been replaced with one from a pipe of one of the other makers that use red dots, but it looks far too well-fitting for that to be the case.

 

[uberam3rica]

Maybe it isnt the original stem. Maybe the original stem broke and it was replaced with this. Did you buy it new?

 

[nsfisher]

ya i think ur lookin at a replacement stem mate

 

[dukdalf]

I'll post a clear shot of the dot in question tomorrow. I don't think it's a replacement stem, the pipe came fresh from Dunhill's about twenty years ago. As far as I know it was new then, but I can't be absolutely sure as the last digit of the date stamp is hardly legible. Moreover, it's never been smoked so why would anyone replace a stem on a brandnew pipe?

 

[dukdalf]

Found a larger version that might do:

It's red and real, as far as I can tell...

 

[jcsnaps]

I was somehow expecting RED, maybe it is just the photo lighting, but it doesn't strike me as all that RED. I have noticed when I use a rouge polish it sometimes leaves a slight tinge to things, easily cleaned though. I wonder if the pipe was being cleaned and polished and some residue didn't get cleaned and stained the spot.

 

[baronsamedi]

Found this on Worthpoint. Could it be that your Dunhill was retrofitted with a Willard stem?
http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/willard-pipe-went-war-billiard-clean-140714111

 

[tokerpipes]

Nah willards dot was on the side of the stem. I wonder if someone colored it trying to make it match the wood.

 

[dukdalf]

What you see on these photographs is how the pipe left Dunhill's. Nobody's touched it since.

 

[rigmedic1]

My Savinelli Bing's Favorite has a gold dot exactly like that. The original stem was replaced with a filter stem, thereby no golf club logo. Does it have a filter?

 

[dukdalf]

Just the aluminum nightmare Dunhill supply with all their pipes.

 

[dienne]

why don't you ask directly to Dunhill company?
- adpl@dunhill.com
- Kalmon.Hener@dunhill.com (General Manager-WHITE SPOT Smoker's Accessory Division)
- Alfred Dunhill Limited, 32 St Andrews Road, London E17 6BQ

 

[tokerpipes]

I would be excited to see what they say.

 

[dukdalf]

Thanks for the tip, but I tried that a while ago and got no answer at all. Suppose I could give it another shot.

 

[wildcat]

Nah willards dot was on the side of the stem

As I understand it, Willard's yellow dot was at the top of the stem like your Dunhill until it was later moved to the side after Dunhill compained to the Willard manufacturers in Sparta. I have a Willard Adjustomatic with the yellow dot on top.
Your Dunhill is awesome by the way!

 

[dukdalf]

Thank you, Wildcat. Although I see its beauty, it's not really my shape of pipe if you know what I mean.

 

[wildcat]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder! A quick PM and I can take that eyesore off your hands! LOL!

 

[dukdalf]

I retried asking Dunhill's and managed to get in contact with mr. Hener, who proved himself to be a very friendly and helpful gentleman. He assured me that as far as he is aware, no Dunhill pipe ever left their establishment with a purposely inserted red dot. The only possible explanation he could think of seems very unlikely, both to mr. Hener and myself: a staining accident. Some bowls are stained with reddish tints and this pipe has a color like that, but first of all that means the pipe would have to have been stained with the stem in place (not the way I would do it and I'm pretty certain the same goes for Dunhill's craftsmen) and second, someone would certainly have noticed. Quality control at Dunhill's is quite strict, I believe. Even if someone gave the pipe a rigorous polishing that stained the white to red, that someone would have to have been a Dunhill employee who would have made certain the dot either remained white or was restored to it's proper color. So, the question remains unanswered and the facts the same: it is a Dunhill made in 1976, the stem is original, the dot is most certainly uniformly red in a way that doesn't come off with careful polishing and the pipe had this dot when it arrived at my doorstep straight from Jermyn Street. I am about to take a drill to this wretched dot and see if there's any white underneath...