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Ben Wade: Difference between revisions
→The Family era
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In the | In the second World War the factory was destroyed by German air raids on Leeds. But the Ben Wade family decided to re-build it immediately after the war and pipe production was re-started soon and successfully linked to the fame from the pre-war years. | ||
Before the second war Ben Wade clustered their offerings into three price points: "Ben Wade" included the higher end pipes (eg the Larnix, Super Grain, Selected Grain, etc), "BW" included the mid-level pipes (eg Statesman, Natural Grain, County, etc), and "BWL" were the least expensive (eg Hurlingham, Adelphi, Tense Grain). Champion was in the last group, and in the 1930s at least retailed for 2/6. | |||
The Champion disappeared during the War when the Ben Wade line was materially slimmed down, presumably to reflect difficulties of supply. The name continued to appear in brand directories st least through the early sixties, however it's unclear whether production was actually resumed.''Courtesy [http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/ben-wade-the-champion PipesMagazine.com]" | |||
<gallery widths=225 heights=185 caption="BWL Hurlingham, courtesy Doug Valitchka"> | |||
File:BWL01.jpg | |||
File:BWL07.jpg | |||
File:BWL08.jpg | |||
File:BWL09.jpg | |||
</gallery> | |||
Even though the owner family decided to leave pipe business and sell off the firm. The family went into negotiations with Herman G. Lane, president of Lane Ltd. in New York at about the same time as the Charatan family. Lane Ltd. bought both firms in 1962. | |||
Herman G. Lane had been Charatan's US sole distributor since 1955 and Charatan always remained his pet child. But Ben Wade was treated in another way by it's new owner. The fabrication of pipes was reduced and the factory in Leeds was closed in 1965 finally. | Herman G. Lane had been Charatan's US sole distributor since 1955 and Charatan always remained his pet child. But Ben Wade was treated in another way by it's new owner. The fabrication of pipes was reduced and the factory in Leeds was closed in 1965 finally. | ||