James Upshall B EXL EXL Smooth Army Mount Dublin 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. While James Upshall pipes are no longer made, their reputation as some of the finest British hand-turned pipes lives on.

During the workshop’s lifetime, most of James Upshall’s pipes were either Tilsheads, or they were the “standard” grades of S, A, and P. But, if a pipe was extraordinarily well grained, it had a chance to become a “high-grade”—which, given the exceptional quality of Upshall’s standard output, meant the latter were pretty special. The Upshall “B” was one of these high-grades and, per Ken Barnes, was roughly equivalent to a Charatan Executive grade. Looking at this B grade, I have no doubts that it is a special pipe, and I also wonder if Ken was being a little modest in that approximation. The straight grain on this one is absolutely superb, and it has something that I don’t think I’ve ever seen on a James Upshall pipe before: an amber-like army mount. I suppose when a bowl turns out that good, it deserves a little extra something. As a side note, I was doing some research the other day to work out what the prices of an Upshall would be today, if the workshop was still around. I could only go by early 2000s pricing, as Upshall didn’t have a website until then but, adjusted for inflation, an EX.L (extra large) B grade even without a mount would be around £1700 by now, or well over $2000.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating. It comes with a leather James Upshall sleeve.

 

Details:

Length: 6.7″ / 170.1mm

Bowl Width: 0.97 / 24.63mm

Bowl Depth: 1.81″ / 45.97mm

Weight: 2.1oz / 62g