James Upshall G Grade Smooth Cavalier Sitter Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates

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 pipes lives on.

While I am a great fan of James Upshall pipes, I’ll be the first to admit that their grading system was far from intuitive. In fact, scratch that, I’ll be the second to admit it, as Ken Barnes himself said as much during an interview several years back. Nevertheless, while the workshop did predominantly use letter grades on their pipes, these letters did not ascend or descend alphabetically in relation to the pipe’s stature. In other words, it wasn’t a case of grade A, then B, then C, and so on; it was S, A, P, B, G, E, X, XX. On the other hand, Barnes did give a rough approximation as to how some of these grades compared to the grades of his former employer, Charatan, which English pipe enthusiasts are likely to find helpful. A G grade, as seen here, would be roughly equivalent in quality to a Lane era Charatan Selected grade, or perhaps even a Supreme. Looking at this G grade, I’m inclined to agree with the latter. The shaping is impeccable, the straight grain is exquisite, and the construction is genuinely impressive from a technical perspective. Given the relatively spartan stamping on this one, the vintage should be around 1979-1989.

The condition is great. Minor inner rim darkening, but overall very well looked after.

 

Details:

Length: 6.5″ / 165.1mm

Bowl Width: 0.94 / 23.87mm

Bowl Depth: 1.65″ / 41.91mm

Weight: 1.9oz / 54g