Charatan’s Make Perfection Lane Era Stack 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.

There is just something about the Lane era Perfection grade pipes I’ve always been attracted to. I think it’s the stain; it’s that golden contrast kind of approach that’s seen, with some differences, on pipes ranging from BBB’s Tortoise to the eponymous Stanwell series. It’s like caramelized brown sugar, but a dark sugar, such as the muscovado variety. It looks great on this quarter-bent stack, with the juxtaposition of lots of different grain patterns working to the pipe’s advantage precisely because of this extraordinary finish. Based on the stamping, this will be a “first Lane era” Perfection, from 1961-1965.

The condition is great. Some minor rim darkening.

 

Details:

Length: 5.6″ / 142.2mm

Bowl Width: 0.76″ / 19.30mm

Bowl Depth: 1.91″ / 48.51mm

Weight: 1.5oz / 44g