Charatans Make Special, Lane Era Extra Large Estate Briar Pipe

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.

These days, the idea of the ‘freehand’ pipe is most readily associated with Denmark, but while Denmark was experiencing its freehand revolution in the 1960s and ’70s, a similar movement was taking place across the North Sea. This was a distinctly English freehand turn in pipe-making, one whose epicenter was the Charatan workshop. This particular Charatan is a fitting representative of English freehands; it is large, finely grained, and carved with such skill that it makes briar look as malleable as silk – Rodinesque, one might say. Particularly impressive is how the pipe’s carver has managed to flute the bowl’s exterior in lines that more or less follow the swirling straight grain of the briar.

The condition is great. There’s a little rim discoloration and a slight un-rounding of the chamber from prior reaming, but nothing major.

 

Details:

Length: 6.4″

Bowl Width: 26.3mm

Bowl Depth: 2″

Weight: 2.8oz / 80g