Dunhill 1939 Shell Sandblasted Billiard Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates

Description

To veteran pipe smokers, Dunhill needs no introduction. Beginning in 1907, Alfred Dunhill began selling Dunhill pipes at the tobacconist shop he owned on London’s Duke Street. Very quickly, these pipes gained the reputation of being the ‘Rolls-Royce’ of pipes due to how expertly crafted they were. Today, Dunhill is likely Britain’s most famous pipe manufacturer, and continues to produce some of the most treasured pipes a smoker can buy.

Hm. It looks like I might just have found someone’s unicorn. Not only is this a pre-war Dunhill (give or take, at least, depending on which side of the Atlantic you’re from, and whether it was made in the first eight months of 1939), but it also has something that those early Dunhills are famous for: a superlative sandblast. Dunhills from the birth of the Shell Briar, in the late 1910s, until around the mid-century are prized for their deep, rugged sandblasts, but the most coveted of these pipes are those exhibiting tight, consistent ring grain (which, given the difficult logistical situation around importing good briar back then, is far from guaranteed, even for early Shell finishes like this one. But, lo and behold, this one knocks it out of the park. If it was less compact in stature, or if the finish wasn’t quite as dark, I might think it was a J.T. Cooke or a Bill Taylor Ashton. If it had been made 50 years later, it would undoubtedly have earned the “Ring Grain” designation, though the modern Ring Grain tends to be a little more staid in execution than seen here.

The stamping reads as follows:
59 3 DUNHILL SHELL MADE IN ENGLAND 19 (19 underlined)
CANADIAN PATENT 209845/21

As for the condition: let’s be clear, this pipe is nearly 90 years old. There’s some finish fading and a few handling marks (albeit creating a lovely contrast effect in the process), some rim darkening, and the chamber does look to be somewhat over-reamed. Yet despite all this, it remains remarkably preserved for such a historic piece.

Details:

Length: 5.7″ / 144.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.94 / 23.87mm

Bowl Depth: 1.49″ / 37.84mm

Weight: 1.1oz / 34g