Sasieni Patent Eight Dot Westminster, Lovat Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates [SOLD]

Description

Along with names like Barling, Charatan, and Dunhill Sasieni holds a special place in the history of English smoking pipes – one near to its very beginnings. So the story goes, Sasieni himself worked for Dunhill during its early days. But eventually he left Dunhill, having his own ideas about how pipes should be made, and founded Sasieni. This was 1919, and Sasieni has been the closest thing to a household name in English pipes ever since.

While Sasieni’s Four Dot pipes are synonymous with high-grade, classic English pipes, there are two other kinds of Sasieni pipes that are held in even higher regard: the One Dot, and the Eight Dot. I’ve talked a little about the One Dot in previous listings for Specially Selected Sasieni pipes, so this would be a good opportunity to talk about Eight Dots. As Sasieni historian Stephen Smith documents, the Eight Dot was a short-lived series, conceived by Sasieni solely for US importers, that was manufactured only from the late-1920s to some point during the Second World War. To narrow the time-frame of this Sasieni down further, Smith also documents that the make began to use the names of English locations for its various shapes in the mid-1930s. As this is a “Westminster,” i.e., one of Sasieni’s early designs for what we would now call a Lovat, this places this particular Sasieni between around 1935 and before the end of the Second World War.

For a pipe that is over 80 years old, the condition is remarkably good. The rim has some darkening and is a little out of round, and the stinger appears to have been removed (I have heard that this is a common occurrence), but it is nonetheless a great, historic pipe.

 

Details:

Length: 4.6″ / 116.8mm

Bowl Width: 0.79 / 20.06mm

Bowl Depth: 1.4″ / 35.56mm

Weight: 0.7oz / 22g