James Upshall Acclaim w/ Bill Taylor Blast Magnum Bent Billiard Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

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. Sadly, James Upshall pipes are no longer made, but their reputation as some of the finest handmade British pipes lives on.

The “Acclaim” belonged to James Upshall’s “Empire” series, which contained the workshop’s less frequent, high-grade magnum-sized pipes. Originally, only smooth finished Empire pipes were produced, but in later years the series was expanded to include rusticated, Bark finishes, and, in very rare occasions, sandblasts. There are two reasons for this rarity: one is that high-grade, magnum-sized pipes demand appropriately high quality briar, with appropriately good grain; another is that, as was discovered fairly recently, James Upshall’s craftsmen did not have the equipment to do their own sandblasting. Instead, per Ken Barnes, sandblasting was outsourced to none other than William Ashton Taylor, of Ashton pipes. Bill Taylor was a busy man, however, so his collaborations with James Upshall were sporadic, leaving behind very few such pipes. This Acclaim has a genuinely superb ring grain blast, which should not be surprising given Bill’s reputation as a master of the finish.

This pipe is also completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating. The stem shows some very slight oxidation at the base, but nothing major.

 

Details:

Length: 8″ / 203.2mm

Bowl Width: 0.92 / 23.36mm

Bowl Depth: 2.03″ / 51.56mm

Weight: 3.2oz / 92g