James Upshall B Grade Smooth 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.

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. This group 4 Billiard is a fascinating example of what a B could look like. It is, unsurprisingly, impressive in the consistency and fineness of its straight grain; what is more surprising is how it has been cut. Ken Barnes used to talk about how his favorite way to create straight grain pipes was, in a way quite opposite to Charatan, to position a briar block so that the plateau end would be at the base of the bowl. By turning the block “upside down,” the grain lines would not flare outward as they ran up the sides of the bowl (as they famously did on Charatan’s Dublin shapes), and would instead run in a more parallel fashion, with any flaring occurring nearer the pipe’s underside. That’s what Barry Jones appears to have done here, and the results are incredibly striking.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating.

 

Details:

Length: 5.7″ / 144.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.72 / 18.28mm

Bowl Depth: 1.38″ / 35.05mm

Weight: 1.2oz / 36g