Dunhill/fr: Difference between revisions

At the beginning of the 2000s, Mr Burrows (a longtime collaborator who supervised the mixtures) related that the book still existed, but it was not in Dunhill's possession. He also said that British American Tobacco (the company that owned the rights to all Dunhill tobaccos for quite some time as “Rothman’s” before they merged) owned the book as well as controlled the production of present Dunhill tobaccos (though Dunhill still makes its pipes). BAT will not release it or its contents to anyone. He has tried several times to convince BAT to release the My Mixture recipes to him while still allowing them to retain ownership of the book, but BAT declined. Mr Burrows was unhappy about the situation.

<font size="2">'''Addendum:''' In 1989 Richemont acquires Philip Morris' 30 percent interest in Rothmans International<ref name=richemont>Richemont History, including Significant Investments and Divestments Retrieved 06 February 2020 from [https://www.richemont.com/group/history-including-significant-investments-and-divestments.html Richemont]</ref>. Rothmans International Group was formed in October 1993 through the reorganization of the tobacco and luxury goods businesses of Richmont, Rothmans, and Dunhill into two new listed groups, Rothmans International and Vendome. Rothmans International comprises all of Rothman's tobacco businesses and certain tobacco trademarks previously owned by Dunhill and Richmont. International cigarette brands owned and controlled by the group include Rothmans, Peter Stuyvesant, Dunhill, Craven A, and Golden American. Under its constitution, Rothmans International has a

dual holding company structure, in which the shareholders hold units comprising twinned shares in Rothmans International Plc, a British company, and Rothmans International NV a Dutch company. Rothmans International Plc owns the UK-based businesses and Rothmans International NV owns non-UK based businesses. The composition of the boards of both companies is identical. Following the

reorganization, Rothmans Tobacco (Holdings) SA, an indirectly wholly-owned Richmont subsidiary, owns 61% of the Rothmans International units, with the balance being held by former public shareholders of

Rothmans and Dunhill<ref name=fu>Fundinguniverse (1998). Rothmans UK Holdings Limited History. Retrieved 06 March 2020 from [http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/rothmans-uk-holdings-limited-history/ fundinguniverse.com]</ref>. Vendome is now called Richemont (created in 1988 by the spin-off of the international assets owned by Rembrandt Group Limited of South Africa) and owns percent effective interest of BAT stock.

In 1995 Richemont buyout of Rothmans International minority shareholders. In 1996 Merger of Richemont's tobacco interests with those in South Africa held by Rembrandt Group Limited, Richemont owns 67 percent of the enlarged tobacco group. In 1999 Merger of Rothmans International with British American Tobacco (Richemont holds 23.3 percent effective interest in the enlarged British American Tobacco)<ref name=richemont>Richemont History, including Significant Investments and Divestments Retrieved 06 February 2020 from [https://www.richemont.com/group/history-including-significant-investments-and-divestments.html Richemont]</ref>. The Dunhill brand as owned by Richemont was organized into two separately controlled entities: Dunhill Manufacturing (The White Spot Smoker's Accessory Division: pipes, lighters, leather goods, etc), and Dunhill luxury goods, which includes the stores, watches, pens (Dunhill bought Mont-Blanc around 1977), clothes etc<ref name=richemont>Richemont History, including Significant Investments and Divestments Retrieved 06 February 2020 from [https://www.richemont.com/group/history-including-significant-investments-and-divestments.html Richemont]</ref> (Richard Dunhill headed the pipe making division). Today, it is not a separate entity. The White Spot (smokers' accessory) division is a product division within Alfred Dunhill Limited (like menswear, leather goods or hard products)<ref name=hener>Hener, K. S. Product Line Director - The White Spot Smoker's Accessory Division and Walthamstow site. (Conversations held between 2019 and 2020).</ref> The stores and other branded items are run separately by people who figure their potential customer base is 95% non-smokers.<ref name=balfour21>Balfour, Michael. (1992). Alfred Dunhill, One Hundred Years and More, Introduction (pp.7-11). London, Weidenfield and Nicolson.</ref></font>

[[File:Dunhill amber root unique piece.jpg|thumb|right|210px|Amber Root, Gold Band, 1999 By Emanuele Mauro]]

<font size="2">'''Addendum+:''' In 1976 Dunhill acquired (for U$2,185,000 + 106,000 £ after loan repayments) Lane Limited which included [[Charatan]] (acquired by Lane in '62), [[Ben Wade]] (acquired in '65 and the Grosvernor Pipe (founded in '62 by Herman Lane). In 1987 Dunhill Sold the control of Lane Ltd to Rothmans (later merged with BAT).<ref name=balfour24>Balfour, Michael. (1992). Alfred Dunhill, One Hundred Years and More (pp. 176-178). London: Weidenfield and Nicolson.</ref><br>Dunhill allowed Preben Holm to use the Ben Wade name until his death, in 1989. Almost a decade passed before John Louis Duncan bought the name from Dunhill and relaunched the brand while still using the [[Dunhill Factory]] at Walthamstow. The [[Ben Wade]] brand was subsequently sold to Mr Peter Wilson, in 1998 (John Duncan, a grandson of the founder John Louis Duncan, sold the firm to his brother-in-law Peter Wilson)<ref name=dgl>Ferrara, Fabio (2000). La datazione delle CHARATAN. Retrieved 08 April 2020 from [https://digilander.libero.it/tempioedonismo/CHARATAN.htmsmokingpipes.com digilander.libero.it]</ref><ref name=pmrs>The Pipes Magazine Radio Show – Episode 178 and 225. Ken Barnes on Radio Show. February 9, 2016 and January 3, 2017. Retrieved 08 April 2020 from [https://pipesmagazine.com/blog/category/radio-talk-show/ pipesmagazine.com]</ref>

.<br>The Richemont group continue with manufacturing and selling the [[Charatan]] pipe brand nowadays (Dunhill and Charatan are still under the umbrella of them). [[Parker]] and Charatan pipes are mainly made in the Chatham workshop in Kent or abroad. Just the stamping and packing of those pipes is done in their main factory, in London<ref name=hener>Hener, K. S. Product Line Director - The White Spot Smoker's Accessory Division and Walthamstow site. (Conversations held between 2019 and 2020).</ref>. <br>In 1988 Dunhill licensed 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.

When J.B. Russell went out of business in 2002 Dunhill reintroduced Charatan and called on Colin Fromm of Invicta Briars and Castleford fame to produce Charatan freehands now. Since Colin Fromm and his foreman Colin Leeson, both belonging to the small number of English pipe artisans skilled in making high-end freehand shapes had already been making exquisite free-hands for Dunhill for a couple of years in Chatham, Kent.<ref name=ctm>Pipedia, Charatan - Milan 2014. Retrieved from [https://pipedia.org/wiki/Charatan_-_Milan_2014]</ref>

====Pipe Workshop====

[[File:Alfred Dunhill Pipe Shapes Dec 1914 (1).jpg|thumb|right|200px| Dunhill's Pipe Shapes, Dec 1914.]]

[[File:Alfredmachine.jpg|thumb|right|200px| Alfred and his machine, Adolphus - courtesy J. Guss.]]

[[File:Screen_Shot_2562-09-07_at_17.02.42.png|thumb|right|200px| Briar Selection. ©About Smoke]]

[[File:Screen_Shot_2562-09-07_at_17.02.59.png|thumb|right|200px| Alfred's Workshop ©About Smoke]]

[[File:Screen_Shot_2562-09-07_at_17.21.07.png|thumb|right|200px| Briar Selection. ©About Smoke]]

[[File:00000IMG 00000 BURST20191102150900988 COVER.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Outdoor Smokers]]

[[File:DSC0021.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Leather Covered - 60s. ©Forcióri]]

Loring stated in his book that between 1907 and March 1910 (before establishing the manufacturing facility) Alfred's pipes were not made by him. He bought fully manufactured pipes, (most probably) made out of varnished Algerian briar, in four shapes. These were thick shanked, thin shanked, military mount billiards, and a bulldog. After this period, the pipes came from France.