Dunhill Dating Guide
Dunhill Dating Guide
Pre-Dating Code
First Years
1907- March 1910 |
Exclusively third party made pipes. Shape numbers running from 1 through 30 (but not only in this period) and probably, DUNHILL over DUKE ST. S.W stamps. Stamping in these years is presently unknown, but it should be something like that:
Duke ST. S. W. |
Pre-October 1918
First own partial production introduced in 1910, but still using bowls shaped in France. In 1917 the Calabrian briar started to be used, but not completely. Only in 1920, Dunhill took the final step in its pipe making operation.
1910-1912 | Duke ST. S. W. |
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1913-OCT 1918 | Duke ST. S. W. |
PAT.Nº |
(if for export) |
1917 | 3,4,12 (...) |
"PAT.PENDING" |
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Number | Country | APP'D | ISS'D | Specification |
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w/ REG.Nº 561949/10 |
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these ancillary stamps, in fact, began as uptick work/quality/pricing codes. | |
was another pre-war stamping and meant 'Hand Worked'. | |
was introduced the shortly before the end of World War I, and meant 'Large Billiard'. |
- "DR"(Dead Root) more likely as that stamping was being used to denote straight grained pipes by at least as early as 1915. While these pipes in time became a high end subset to the Dunhill 'Bruyere' (and later the Root).
- In 1910 an Asorbal pipe was made part of that line with a filter similar to that of the cigarette. Loring believes that the Asorbal was made from French turned bowls and may have remained in production for some years as the initial 1924.
- From 1910 through October 1918 Dunhill branded its pipes with DUNHILL over DUKE ST. S.W. (After this period, only in special editions, as the anniversary versions (75 years in 1985 and 100 years in 2007) which reproduce Dunhill pipes made in 1910.
- Prior to 1923 the Bruyere "A"s are found both circled and uncircled, thereafter the "A" is uniformly uncircled. The uncircled "A" both before and after 1923 is sometimes followed by either a round or square subscript 'stop' (i.e o or []) or with a number below "4".
- From June 1918 through October 1918 a small round subscript 'stop', like this "o" was added immediately following the "A", that generally was stamped to the left of DUNHILL (Before that, they were aleatory and sometimes more than one, as you can see in the first figure above).
- End of 1918. In the last few months of 1918, Dunhill changed the DUKE ST S. W. stamping to LONDON.
- About Shell. For instance, if a pipe exists with the English 5861/12 patent together with patent-pending language it could be comfortably dated to 1917. Pipes do exist with the MAR.9.15 US patent reference together with PAT. APP FOR, but these pipes date from 1918 - 1920.
Pos-October 1918 - 1921
November of 1918 - Dunhill changed the DUKE ST S. W. stamping to LONDON. From this time through 1951, the brand side of the Bruyere was stamped DUNHILL over LONDON.
November 1918 - 1919 / Bruyere |
In 1918, DUNHILL over LONDON lines are of equal length, the verticals of the "D" of DUNHILL and the "L" of LONDON lining up.
In 1919, The stamp was recut at the end of May and from June until the end of 1919. LONDON is equal to the arch with the "L" and "N" pointing to the outside points of the "D" and final "L" of Dunhill.
1918: | LONDON |
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1919: | LONDON(inside arch) |
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1919: | LONDON("L" outside "D") |
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- The finish most generally with an "A" but, occasionally DR, OD or HW.