MEMORIES OF CHARATAN
PIPES AND NOTES ON THEIR DATING
By Ivy Ryan
I joined
the Women's Army Corps in 1963 and went through advanced training at
My
second pipe was a Dunhill--a group 3
Finding myself back to one pipe again, I decided to look in the phone
book to see if any other pipe dealers were located near my hotel. I found a
listing on nearby
I
visited the shop, which turned out to be the factory, to see what they had.
There I met a very nice, very British gentleman who, on hearing my story, took
me inside to see the factory and find a pipe. I had told him about the fracas
with Dunhill, and he agreed that that just wasn't a nice way to do business. In
fact, he assured me that Charatan stood behind their
pipes for the life of the owner. I
got to see the whole shop, from the wood kilns to the turning, and I met a lot
of the men who worked there, too. I was, and still am, almost overwhelmed by the
beautiful pieces those men turned out. Their attitude was, "If it isn't perfect,
then it's either a Belvedere, a rough, or firewood."
Anyway, I bought a Charatan that evening, and I
still have it. It is, like my GBD, a bit big for me, but it never burned
out. I did crack the shank once,
but a silver band fixed that real well. I got into the habit of taking leaves in
On
thing that I remember coming up from one of those sessions was the idea of tiers
of pipe makers. This has nothing to
do with the grade of the pipe but, rather, with the grade of the manufacturer.
According to the Charatan carvers, the tiers went
thusly.
Tier
One. the top. This was a manufacturer all of whose
pipes were completely made by hand (using tools such as grinders, files, drill
presses and such), and the pipe was generally made,
start to finish, by one man. No fills or pits were allowed, and the grain had to
be excellent. At the time, only Charatan was Tier One.
Now a lot of people fit there, from Bo Nordh to David
Jones and Mark Tinsky.
Tier
Two. Any manufacturer who hand made their pipes but in which
the pipes were made by a team instead of a single expert making each
pipe. Tier 2 pipes often have minor pits also but never any fills. Ser
Jacopo, Don Carlos, Caminetto and most other Italian
manufacturers are in this tier.
Tier
Three. A manufacturer who rough machined their own pipes, then hand finished
them. These makers made their own stems, bands (if used) and the lot. The pipes
were often made by more than one person.
Pre-transition Barlings, early Comoys, and GBDs generally
exemplified this tier. Grain didn't
matter too much, though it was appreciated, but pits or fills were not
allowed.
Tier
Four. A maker who machined the stummel but made their own bit and did their own
coloring. This tier of maker often bought bowls from other makers. No
pits or fills were allowed, but grain wasn't even figured into the design.
Dunhill exemplifies this tier. Dunhill also wasn't as picky about quality as
they claim--after all, sandblasting covers all sins.
Tier
Five and below. These we didn't care to talk about, as they weren't worth the
pence they cost. These would have fills and pits and Featured cheap and dirty construction-Kaywoodie, Medico, Dr. Grabow,
Peterson and that lot. Now, lower tier makers could make a higher tier pipe, but
it wasn't their forte. They were much happier doing what they did best. An
example of a lower-tier company making a first-tier pipe is my husband's
Peterson Gold Spigot: no fills, good wood, very good
workmanship. Definitely a second-tier pipe from a fourth-tier
company.
Charatan's Make has been my favorite brand ever
since I bought that first pipe in April, 1964. Every time I was transferred to a new
duty station from 1964 through 1973, I made sure to stop off in
He
once told of a time, back when he was an apprentice (c. 1910 or so) when he was
"scutting" (cleaning and arranging stock) at "the old
store" (Charatan's first store in London, I think) and
found himself taken to the Palace to carry, load and unload for Mr. Charatan himself while Mr. Charatan showed the King a selection of pipes. (He said that
the King took most of them because the problem of deciding which were the best was too difficult.) Anyway, his moral was that
"I learned that if you made the very best of something, then the best would buy
from you. So I decided to become the very best pipe carver that Charatan's Make had ever hired. I did it, too." He told us
this about mid 1967, and he'd been there since around 1908 at that time, I'd
guess.
Charatan's Make was started and first run in
Charatan did not make their pipes like anyone
else at the time. Every other pipe company used various specialized pipe making
automatic machines to shape their pipes, so they got whatever the machine made.
Charatan's Make pipes were hand made from the first
and continued to be hand made as long as the
Charatan did not cure their briar like any
other pipe company either. Like the supreme wood workers of
In
1960, Charatan was sold to Lane Limited. Except for the introduction of the
Double Comfort bit, Lane left the company alone, run by its original people,
until about 1965. By the end of 1965, Lane had "made some changes," as noted
below, which gave rise to the mythos of "pre-Lane" and "post-Lane" pipes. In
1978 or 1979, Dunhill bought Lane Limited, and that was the end for Charatan's Make as an indepen
By
1982, Dunhill had closed the
After 1988, the Charatan name became the
property of the J.B. Russell company, and I have to admit that 1 know nothing
at all about the J. B. Russell "Charatans." I have not seen any of the New
Charatan middle to high grades to find
out.
Charatans are difficult to date in that Charatan's guarantee was open ended. Unlike Dunhill, which
dated its pipes so as to enforce its one-year guarantee, Charatan refused to worry about when a particular pipe was
made. A Charatan pipe was replaced if it failed--no
matter how old it was or how it had been treated-so there was no need to date
the pipes. The way to date Charatan pipes is to be
aware of the minor changes that were made during the years that Charatan was in business. With a bit of information as to
the dates of some markings and stem changes, I introduce this approximate dating
guide. A lot of these dates are going to be "about" or approximately," and I am
only able to cover the times from the mid 1950s to the sale by Dunhill to J.B.. Russell circa 1988. My
information is approximate because I do not have access to factory records. I am
working from memory, stories I heard It the
The
keys for dating post-war to 1960-era Charatan pipes
are the presence or absence of serifs (i.e., short lines stemming from and at an
angle to the upper and lower ends of a letter) on the CP stamp, the presence or
absence of the Lane "L" on tapered and early saddle bit stems, and the presence
or absence of the renowned Double Comfort bit. After 1960, the dates may be
determined by the stamping on the right side of the pipe. (Note: I was a
20-odd-year-old, pipe-smoking woman when I hung around Charatans. I was not a researcher, though I sure wish I had
been. I have been told since that all pre-WW II records went up when the "old"
factory was destroyed in the bombing, but I was just not interested. I really
regret that now. I let a lot of history go, but all I can say is that I was
younger then.)
The
Lane Limited florid "L" is on almost all Charatans
imported into the
Pre-1955 Charatans--possibly back to the
beginning--had pronounced serifs on the CP stamp and either a taper or saddle
bit. Pipes made in 1955 or later
had the same types of bits but without the serifs on the CP. The block letter
"FH" marking, for "Free Hand," on either side of the stem was used from the
1940s or so until about 1958. The problem is that all pipes were not stamped
"FH," even though all the pipes were actually hand made.
The
block letter "MADE BY HAND" stamp on the right side or bottom of the shank came
into use in early 1958 to replace the "FH" stamp and was used until late 1965.
The letters were about one millimeter tall.
The
Double Comfort bit came into use in 1960 and is still in use. The Double Comfort bit looks like a
fairly thick saddle bit, with another saddle cut into it about 3/4 of an inch
from the button, which is the technical term for the raised and rounded end of a
stem. The original design was supposed to produce a strong stem with a thin
bite. It was also supposed to be a
distinctive point about the brand, giving instant product recognition. The
Double Comfort bit was probably the largest mistake that Charatan could have made. Bit shape and bite comfort ranged
from excellent to terrible, with nothing to base a buyer's choice on but the
width of the bit. The narrow
versions were generally very comfortable, but the wide versions varied from thin
enough to be comfortable to thick as a plank. This bit design probably led to the
company's failure, because a person could no longer count on Charatan for a comfortable pipe to smoke. A consumer once bitten by a poor bit
will be twice shy of buying another.
After 1960, Charatan didn't make any taper bits
unless for special orders. They did make pipes with "normal" saddle bits. These
pipes will have an "X"--with or without a line under or beside it to indicate
that the pipe in question was "supposed" to have a saddle bit and not a Double
Comfort bit. I refer to this
marking as the "Xline" mark. That mark will look like
this: ####X (with the #### being some number, such as
4025).
In
late 1965, the right-side stamping changed to a three-line set of stamps. The
first and second lines read "MADE BY HAND" and "IN" respectively in block
letters a bit larger (2 millimeters) than the earlier version. The third line
reads "City of
The next stamp used was the all-script,
three-line "Made by Hand" "in" "City of
After Dunhill bought Lane, thereby gaining control of Charatan, it kept the old
A
"Charatan" made in the Parker-Hardcastle factory will have the number and the D.C. neatly
stamped. The pipes marked with the D.C. from the old Charatan factory were made between 1978 or 1979 and 1982.
Pipes made at the Parker-Hardcastle plant continued to
use the D.C. stamp until Dunhill sold the Charatan
name in 1988.
The
D.C. has several meanings. On a Parker-Hardcastle-made
pipe, it means "Fit with a Double Comfort bit," while on pipes made at
Charatan grades were simple until the crazy
years of late 1965 to 1979. Up
until then, they had, in order of increasing value:
The
Rough These pipes had a rusticated shank and a
sandblasted bowl finish dating from about 1930. This treatment was used to save
the time and work in a pipe gone truly bad.
The
Rarity These were pipes with otherwise good grain but
some tiny flaws. These tiny flaws were carved over with pretty designs to save
the work invested.
The
Perfection These pipes were always cross-grained and
were so named because Dunhills were most always
cross-grained. Dunhill claimed to make "perfect pipes," so Charatan's Make were having their little joke. These were sometimes dyed walnut to
bring out weak grain.
The
Belvedere These had straightish but weak grain. This was Charatan's lowest class of smooth pipes. They were dyed plum
color to bring out the grain.
Note: The "Perfections" were the lowest of the upper grades-smooth, dyed
generally, and grained like a Dunhill Root, i.e., not much to speak of. The Perfection was the grade below
Special and was basically mixed and weak grained. It seems to have been simply
an insult to all the other pipe makers, especially to Dunhill. The rivalry was
real, and as the first Mr. Charatan was an immigrant
and a Jew, the rivalry got a bit vicious at times. The Belvederes were
apprentice pipes, made to a simple numbered shape and, for Charatan, cheaply made. I rarely count them into Charatan's grades at all. They were, to Charatan, the equivalent of Dunhill's Bruyere grade, except that, for Charatan's Make, it was a practice grade for apprentices.
The apprentice had a numbered form to copy, finish, make a bit for and then to
stamp the form number on. Good ones would be graded and sold smooth, while ones
with pits or small marks would be made into roughs.
The
Special These were generally unstained or lightly
stained. They had better grain, but it was not perfect by any
means
The Distinction
Better grain than the Specials but not that good yet. These pipes were often
given a light stain to bring out the grain.
The
Executive Named for the executives in "The City" around the turn of the century,
these unstained pipes had better grain than the Distinction. After 1965, some of
this grade had a carved top to resemble plateau briar.
After Hours This unstained pipe was a grade when
it first came out, with Selected-quality grain. The design of the After Hours allowed the use
of smaller ebuchauns due to the horn (later plastic)
section screwed to the truncated shank.
The
Selected This grade had almost good enough grain to be
the best, but not quite. These were not stained but were well finished, by which
I mean, take the very best pipe by anyone else whose
work you have ever seen. Imagine it even better. The pipe isn't stained but
polished (inside and out) to a glassy, creamy briar-wood finish. Beautiful--though not perfect--grain and a hand-made stem with hand
stamping and all. Not quite
a Supreme but so close.
The
Supreme These pipes had the best straight grains they
made at that time. These were always by comparison with other recently made
pipes, so a Supreme may not be as good as an earlier Selected. These weren't
stained either.
The
difference between a Selected and a Supreme was usually decided by the master
pipe makers on the work floor. The decision was sometimes a bit heated, but
often everyone agreed from the last coarse sanding
on. Woe was palpable when a bowl
showed an irreparable flaw in the last sanding. I have seen a pipe get thrown
across the work-room into the waste when a sud
The
start of the Crazy Years of late 1965 to the Dunhill buyout in 1979 saw the
addition of the Coronation, Achievement, Crown Achievement, Royal Achievement
and Summa Cum Laude high grades, the addition of the Freehand Relief and the
rearrangement of the lower grades. The new arrangement went Belvedere, Special,
Freehand Relief and After Hours. The Perfection was dropped in this mix. The new
"high-grades" were simply an attempt to cut the small Supreme pie into more--and
more expensive--chunks.
Sandblasted pipes stamped Charatan's Make over
The
following information on the "Authentic" Charatan and
Charatan seconds is all my
best guess. I had gotten out of
Charatans before Lane sold out Charatan to Dunhill and thereby delivered Dunhill's only
superior, and its real competition, into Dunhill's ungraceful
hands.
At
one time, smooth Charatan seconds were sold in the
I
have also been asked about the "Authentic" marked Charatans. They are obviously of Perfection grade, and, from
the markings of the ones I have seen, they were turned out after Dunhill bought
Lane and thereby acquired Charatan. Keep that in mind
and remember the reason for the Perfection grading by the old Charatan firm--that is, Charatan's
Perfection was their lowest smooth grade, and yet the pipes had as good a grain
as the Dunhill Root Briar grade. Dunhill always "claimed" that their pipes were
perfect, so Charatan made a bit of a quality statement
there. Of course, after Dunhill bought Charatan, they
dropped the Perfection grade and had to replace it with
something.
[A shorter version of this article
appeared in Pipe Friendly, Vol. 3, Number 4, February,
1998.]
CHARATAN COLLECTORS TAKE
NOTE
We have recently learned that Howard
Schulte is an authorized Charatan repairman. Howard states that while he is not
interested in commercial accounts, he is always willing to help a Charatan smoker/collector with a few problem pipes. Howard has the original CP logo stamp
and a large supply of original Charatan stems. He can be reached
at:
Howard Schulte
Or by phone at
(561)564-0079