Charatan’s Make Free Hand Relief Extra Large Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates

Description

While Dunhill may be Britain’s most famous pipe brand, Charatan is not only older, but has the honor of being the first to have made its pipes entirely in-house. ‘Charatan’s Make’ referred to the fact that, at a time when other pipe companies were sourcing stummels and stems carved from other companies before assembling them in their factories and workshops, Charatan made every part of their pipes on the Charatan premises. So began a legacy of high-quality pipe-making under the Charatan name, one whose employees, at one time or another, included Joel Sasieni, and Ken Barnes and Barry Jones of James Upshall fame.

Make no mistake, this is indeed an “extra large” pipe, with one of the widest bowls I’ve come across for a Charatan pipe. It also has some of the nicest ring grain sandblasting, which is all the more impressive given the pipe’s paneled design. Judging by the model and stamping, I would guess that this is a very early, Reuben era Charatan freehand, produced toward the end of the 1960s. This would be when Reuben Charatan and his family still owned the make, with Lane Ltd handling US imports, hence the “L” Lane symbol.

The condition is great. Some handling marks, but the pipe is nonetheless remarkably preserved.

 

Details:

Length: 8″ / 203.2mm

Bowl Width: 1.1″ / 27.3mm

Bowl Depth: 1.8″ / 45.7mm

Weight: 2.8oz / 82g