James Upshall (1980s) B Grade Smooth Acorn Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates

Description

James Upshall was, along with Ferndown and Ashton, part of a new wave of British hand-made, high-grade pipes in the late 20th century, with their founders largely coming from previous positions in the factories of companies such as Dunhill and Charatan. James Upshall was founded in 1978 by Barry Jones and Ken Barnes, both of whom had previously worked for Charatan and who had worked their way up to being carvers Charatan’s higher-end, non-standard shapes. Jones and Barnes’ pipes quickly grew to being something of a status symbol, and were enjoyed by King Hussein of Jordan, Anwar Sadat, Bing Crosby, Yul Brynner, Robert Wagner and Tom Selleck. The company also made house-brand pipes for Astleys in London. While James Upshall pipes are no longer made, their reputation as some of the finest, hand-turned British pipes lives on.

During the workshop’s lifetime, most of James Upshall’s pipes were either Tilsheads, or they were the “standard” grades of S, A, and P. But, if a pipe was extraordinarily well grained, it had a chance to become a “high-grade”—which, given the exceptional quality of Upshall’s standard output, meant the latter were pretty special. The Upshall “B” was one of these high-grades and, per Ken Barnes, was roughly equivalent to a Charatan Executive grade. I’ve no disagreements with that assessment on this lightweight acorn shape, though from the grade stamp it does look as though it was mistakenly assigned a P grade, before this error was rectified. Based on the lack of a size stamp, I’d estimate this Upshall to have been made early on in the workshop’s career, during the 1980s. Not long before he suddenly passed, Ken Barnes discussed the matter of stamping on James Upshall pipes, and confirmed that size designations were not used until after he had left in 1989.

The condition is very good. Some darkening and general wear to the rim.

 

Details:

Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.83 / 21.08mm

Bowl Depth: 1.75″ / 44.45mm

Weight: 1.4oz / 40g