James Upshall Old England Magnum Dublin w/ Les Wood Silver 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 hand-turned British pipes lives on.

I’m a big proponent of the idea that all James Upshall pipes are high-grades. Even the humble Tilshead, one of which is firmly in my rotation, dwarfs the quality of many of the English pipes being made contemporaneously. But some high-grades are more high-grades than others, as the saying goes. After the Tilsheads, the rusticated and sandblasted pipes, and the S, A, and P grade Upshalls, came pipes which were even more impressive in their construction and graining. Here we find the B grades, the G grades, and so on, and we also find the Empire series. Cut from especially good blocks of briar, the Empire Series were James Upshall’s rare, magnum-sized offerings, turned by master pipe maker Barry Jones. This Old England grade Empire is one of Jones’ signature shapes, one inherited from his teacher, Reuben Charatan: the Bell Dublin. Here we see Jones has greatly increased the Bell Dublin’s breadth and length, however, creating an almost demi-warden-like figure. As is to be expected, the bowl showcases 360 degrees of beautiful straight grain, topped with a ring of pure bird’s-eye. As an added touch, the pipe’s stem is hand-cut cumberland, rather than James Upshall’s more typical vulcanite, and the pipe even has an engine-turned sterling silver collar, mounted by the workshop’s go-to silversmith, Les Wood. While Wood and his wife Dolly were making their own Ferndown pipes during this Old England’s manufacture, Mr Wood always had time for his good friends at James Upshall.

This pipe is completely unsmoked and comes with its original leather sleeve.

 

Details:

Length: 8.5″ / 215.9mm

Bowl Width: 0.95 / 24.13mm

Bowl Depth: 1.81″ / 45.97mm

Weight: 3.6oz / 104g