Lane Era Charatan’s Make Executive Extra Large Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates

Description

While Dunhill may be Britain’s most famous pipe brand, Charatan is not only older, but has the honor of being the first to have made its pipes entirely in-house. ‘Charatan’s Make’ referred to the fact that, at a time when other pipe companies were sourcing stummels and stems carved from other companies before assembling them in their factories and workshops, Charatan made every part of their pipes on the Charatan premises. So began a legacy of high-quality pipe-making under the Charatan name, one whose employees, at one time or another, included Joel Sasieni, and Ken Barnes and Barry Jones of James Upshall fame.

Along with WO Larsen and Pibe Dan in Denmark, the Charatan premises in London, England, was one of the epicenters of a genuine revolution that took place in post-war pipe-making. Using hand-shaping methods that had previously not been explored in the making of briar pipes, Charatan’s carvers, from around 1958 onward, began to craft designs that were both hitherto unthinkable and extraordinarily beautiful. This Charatan, from what is arguably the make’s golden age, the first Lane era of 1961-1965, shows off the workshop’s signature hybridization of more traditional shapes in the form of something completely novel. It blends elements of the foursquare, the cavalier, and even the calabash into a work of veritable pipe art—though one that is no less functional for it. The grade is an Executive Extra Large, an over-sized variation on a title used for Charatan’s straight grain freehands.

The condition is very good. Some rim darkening.

 

Details:

Length: 6.5″ / 165.1mm

Bowl Width: 0.85 / 21.59mm

Bowl Depth: 2.15″ / 54.61mm

Weight: 2.3oz / 66g