James Upshall Empire Ambassador Smooth Rhodesian 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 British handmade pipes lives on.

The grading system used by James Upshall can be a little confusing at times. After all, some pipes were graded with a letter (e.g., P, G, E), some with a word that gestured at the finish (e.g., Bark, Sandblast), and some with words that might not seem to follow any particular rubric (e.g., Acclaim, Old England). There were other grades and one-off series, but we’ll pass over those for the moment. In terms of the more consistently used grades, these can be divided into two major groups: pipes of a standard size, and pipes of a magnum size, also known as the Empire Series. The pipes in each group were graded and, crucially, the grades used for the former correlated to grades used for the latter. A “Tradition” was a magnum “A” grade, an “Old England” was a magnum “P,” and so on. As might be expected, this very stunning and very large Rhodesian was one of James Upshall’s Empire Series, earning the “Ambassador” grade. That meant that it was a magnum-sized “G” grade, one of the highest grades offered by the workshop throughout its lifetime. G grades were rare, and Ambassador grades were even rarer, due to the size and quality of the briar blocks needed to make them. To put things into perspective: by the mid-2000s, an Executive grade Upshall was around $3500, which would be closer to $6000 today when adjusted for inflation. The Ambassador, being one step above the Executive, was even more.

This Ambassador happens to be completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating. It comes with its original leather sleeve. Note that this Ambassador has a Lucite stem, rather than the more typical ebonite found on James Upshall pipes. These Lucite stemmed pipes were originally made as part of a special order for a vendor whose customers requested them.

Details:

Length: 7″ / 177.8mm

Bowl Width: 0.88 / 22.35mm

Bowl Depth: 1.71″ / 43.43mm

Weight: 3.5oz / 100g