Charatan: Difference between revisions

Thanks to Herman G. Lane's dedicated labor Charatan became hugely popular in the States. As reported by Ken Barnes in an interview with Rick Newcombe, Reuben Charatan passed away in 1962, and his widow sold the firm to Herman Lane 1 or 2 years after his death.<ref>http://pipesmagazine.com/blog/pipe-manufacturer-retailer-spotlight/charatan-upshall-and-ken-barnes/</ref> In the early 1960's Charatan pipes were the first to overstep the $100 Dollar line in US pipe sales. In 1978 Lane's heirs sold the Charatan company to Dunhill. The Prescot Street factory was closed in March 1982. Thereafter the fame and quality of the make declined.

Charatan records are almost non-existent before Lane due to a factory fire, making it difficult to date pre-Lane pipes. Charatan used 4 basic grades prior to 1950: Supreme, Selected, Executive, and Belvedere. After 1950 Herman Lane's influence began, and the grades started to expand. In 1955 Lane took over sole distributorship of Charatan in the US. In 1957 he introduced the Supreme S. Most of his other introductions were from the 60's and early 70's.

In 1988 Dunhill sold the rights to the Charatan name, trademark and shape chart - there was hardly more  left over to sell - to '''James B. Russell Inc.''' (Upper Saddle River, NJ). Russell had made his Charatan pipes in Saint-Claude, France. [[Butz-Choquin]] is said to be the manufacturer. Now, Saint-Claude made pipes are surely not bad per axiom, but these Charatans were woefully poor counterfeits of the "real" ones and quite a flop in sale.

Charatan records indicate the DC (Double Comfort) bit was introduced in the 50’s, but some report seeing them in earlier production. Still others indicate they were introduced by Lane in 1960. Regardless, the DC bit is not an accurate way to date a pipe because many Charatan’s were made with regular and saddle type bits throughout the “Lane Era”.

Generally, block letters “MADE BY HAND” and some of the other nomenclature in script (i.e. ''City of London'' or ''Extra Large'' next to the MADE BY HAND) means the pipe was made sometime between 1965 and the mid 1970’s. The total script nomenclature “''Made by Hand in City of London''” evolved over this period of time, so many pipes had variants, such as Made By Hand in block letters and City of London in script, or some other variation of the terms or stampings.

* Mountbatten

<gallery widths=300 heights=200 mode="packed-hover">

char_und5.jpg|Charatan '''Underbore'''; ca. 1930's

[[Image:charatan.gif|thumb|left|400px|Charatans, courtesy of the [http://www.derek-green.com/Others.htm Derek Green Collection]]]

 

<blockquote><q>I need to point out that there seems to be some confusion around my father's position at Charatans and mine. My father, Kenneth Barnes, was the Managing Director of Charatan Pipes during the 1970s and I (Kennedy Barnes) was learning the trade at Charatans during this time and then formed the Tilshead Pipe Co. Ltd (James Upshall) with Barry Jones in 1978.</q></blockquote>

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[[Category: Great Britain]][[Category:Charatan]]