1978 Dunhill Root Briar 41011 Smooth Straight Apple Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked [SOLD]

Description

To veteran pipe smokers, Dunhill needs no introduction. Beginning in 1907, Alfred Dunhill began selling Dunhill pipes at the tobacconist shop he owned on London’s Duke Street. Very quickly, these pipes gained the reputation of being the ‘Rolls-Royce’ of pipes due to how expertly crafted they were. Today, Dunhill is likely Britain’s most famous pipe manufacturer, and continues to produce some of the most treasured pipes a smoker can buy.

When you sell pipes on consignment, as I do, there are more than a few instances where you think to yourself, “drat, I’m going to have a hard time letting this one go.” This is just such a pipe. It’s a Dunhill – an unsmoked one at that – from the make’s high-end Root Briar series, and it has to be one of the nicest Root Briars I’ve personally handled. It’s a group 4, from 1978, and it has the most remarkable grain I’ve seen even compared to other pipes from that series. Root Briars are, of course, intended to be of superior grain quality, hence the light blonde stain, but what I don’t understand with this one is why it didn’t earn the rare Dead Root (DR) designation. After all, this pipe has brilliant, tight and uniform, vertical straight grain all around its bowl. So, why isn’t it a DR? Who knows. I’ve priced it as a regular, unsmoked Root Briar in any case.

As stated, the pipe is unsmoked (the pipe’s factory bowl coating has flaked a little, but it is indeed unused), and came to via our consignment program.

 

Details:

Length: 5″ / 127.0mm

Bowl Width: 0.74 / 18.79mm

Bowl Depth: 1.2″ / 36.48mm

Weight: 1.2oz / 36g