Sasieni Two Dot 107 Smooth Acorn Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates

Description

Along with names like Barling, Charatan, and Dunhill Sasieni holds a special place in the history of English smoking pipes – one near to its very beginnings. So the story goes, Sasieni himself worked for Dunhill during its early days. But eventually he left Dunhill, having his own ideas about how pipes should be made, and founded Sasieni. This was 1919, and Sasieni has been the closest thing to a household name in English pipes ever since.

Owing to intellectual property disputes with Dunhill and to a series of reorganizations of the company after the Second World War, Sasieni’s grading system can be a little complicated. I will try to keep things simple. After the Second World War, Sasieni’s highest-grade pipes were their Four Dot series, with Sasieni soon branching out into selling various sub-brand makes, such as the Old England and Mayfair pipes. Then, Sasieni introduced the Two Dot, which was for pipes that were just below the Four Dot in quality, with sub-brands continuing to be used for pipes that did not qualify for Two Dot nor Four Dot status. At this time, Sasieni’s standards were extremely high, so the Two Dots took the place of pipes that were near-perfect, with “near” being the operative term. This one, for example, is a beautiful, very distinct acorn shape, with briar dominated by rich, bird’s-eye patterns that are only briefly interrupted on the bowl’s right flank. This pipe will have been made before the sale of the Sasieni make in 1979, which should be music to the ears of collectors of English pipes.

The condition is very good. The one thing I will note is the presence of a couple of nicks at the upper left side of the bowl, of which I have included pictures. These nicks are very much superficial.

 

Details:

Length: 6.2″ / 157.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.91 / 23.11mm

Bowl Depth: 1.67″ / 42.41mm

Weight: 2.6oz / 74g