Charatan's Make London England Belvedere 333DC Smooth Straight Dublin Vulcanite Estate Pipe

CHARATAN'S MAKE, LONDON ENGLAND, BELVEDERE - three lines on the shank that tell a collector most of what matters before the pipe is even turned in the hand. This is a smooth straight Dublin, shape 333DC, in the burgundy finish of Charatan's Belvedere grade, fitted with the house's Double Comfort saddle stem.

It is a Bell Dublin in Charatan's own numbering, made in London in the years after 1960, pre-smoked and in very good condition.

The Charatan name runs back to 1863, when Frederick Charatan opened a small workshop in Mansell Street, in London's East End, and began carving meerschaum. The pipes sold well enough that he soon moved round the corner to larger rooms in Prescot Street, and there he turned to briar. Charatan became the first English maker to produce the entire pipe in the house, from the rough block to the finished stem, and the stamp CHARATAN'S MAKE was chosen to set that work apart from pipes assembled out of pre-drilled bowls and bought-in mouthpieces.

The quality did not go unnoticed. Between 1908 and 1910 Alfred Dunhill, unhappy with the pipes he imported from France, bought from Charatan instead, before he hired away one of Charatan's carvers, Joel Sasieni, and opened his own workshop. In 1910 Frederick handed the firm to his son Reuben. From 1955 the American importer Herman G. Lane was Charatan's sole distributor in the United States, and in the early 1960s Charatan became the first pipe to pass the hundred-dollar mark in American sales. After Reuben's death his widow sold the company to Lane; in 1976 Dunhill bought Lane, and in 1982 the old London works closed.

THE MARKS

- CHARATAN'S MAKE / LONDON ENGLAND / BELVEDERE stamped on the shank
- 333DC stamped on the shank
- the Charatan logo on the stem
- the registered number Charatan stamped on its stems

Charatan graded its pipes by the briar, not by the shape. A catalogue from the Lane years puts it plainly: the quality groupings differ "strictly upon the character of the grain." Of the Belvedere it says: "The rich burgundy finish is traditional British coloring - permitting the deep, extraordinary graining of the pipe to stand out." That is the pipe in front of you: a smooth bowl under a deep burgundy stain, with the grain reading clearly through it. A smooth finish hides nothing - there is no sandblast to cover a weak run of grain - so what shows under the light is what the block gave the maker.

A Dublin bowl starts narrow at the heel and opens steadily toward the rim, so the tobacco sits in a cone that is widest where you light it. Charatan's shape chart files 333 under the Bell Dublin, and notes that the first digit of a shape number gives the size group, which makes this a group-3 Bell Dublin. The shape is an old one in the house: the 1951 catalogue already shows the Bell Dublin as shape 33. Here the bowl sits on a straight shank, the most classic English way to carry it.

The letters DC after the shape number stand for Double Comfort. It is a saddle stem whose bit drops in a small step, so the part held in the teeth is slimmer than the stem itself. It was the one change Lane made to Charatan's production when he took over, it became the standard Charatan stem, and it also dates the pipe: Fabio Ferrara, who studied more than two thousand Charatans from every era, found the DC stamp only on pipes made after 1960. The CHARATAN'S MAKE / LONDON ENGLAND nomenclature belongs to the London years, before the name was sold in 1988 and production moved to France. Together the two marks place this pipe in London between 1961 and 1987.

Condition: Pre-smoked and in very good condition. The photographs show the bowl, the rim, the chamber and the stem from every side.

THE MEASUREMENTS

- Length: 140 mm (5.51 in)
- Bowl height: 37 mm (1.46 in)
- Bowl width: 40 mm (1.57 in)
- Chamber diameter: 20 mm (0.79 in)
- Chamber depth: 35 mm (1.38 in)
- Weight: 33 g (1.16 oz)

Ships from the Faridunhill archive. Worldwide shipping and professional sanitation on every estate pipe. SKU: 466