Dunhill: Difference between revisions

Although Alfred Dunhill was brilliant, he certainly did not imagine that this indicative would become his trademark. In 1923, Dunhill had to go to the courts to defend his creation, which was being replicated by Vauen. Dunhill was successful, while Vauen had to restrict its use to the German and Austrian borders.

At first, this rounded marking was thinner and made in celluloid, a species of an acrylic predecessor, which was used until the mid-40, when it was replaced by high-quality acrylic. Because of its appearance, it was defended for years and for many, that the point was made in ivory. However, it is a widespread legend for years, as evidenced by the information and tests executed in the Pipes Magazine Forum, in a post called "Dunhill White Spot Drama". Up to 1976, all the stems were made by hand. They have now been machined due to labor costs.

In the early XX century, many pipes were left aside after a long period of use, due to obstruction of the suction duct that clogged for lack of maintenance. Alfred Dunhill, in 1911, found a reasonable solution to the problem by inserting an aluminum tube that should be replaced as soon as there were signs of clogging. In this way, the use of the pipe was prolonged. The Inner Tube was heavily produced until the 30s. With the advent of the  "Scovillions" (or cleaners) were gradually falling into disuse.

The first setup (left) contains 7 pieces for the weekly relay, where the days of the week related to each pipe are graphed, and others cases, including the "Book-Case " (with values practiced in the decade of 20).

In the following images (originally published in the United States Tobacco Journal, the most important in the tobacco industry) we have the Set which was presented by Alfred to the 29th president of the United States in 1921. Warren G. Harding was editor and owner of an important newspaper in Ohio, the "the Marion Star ", as well as a member of the Senate before occupying the position of President.

Next, a survivor Set - Alfred Era. It is a set of 03 pieces with a case, made in a single block of the best briar available at the time. Shapes: Billiard-60; Billiard-35; Dublin-42. Ao Series (Bruyère) introduced in 1910. It was the best-quality line, directed at the British nobility. On one side of the shank its stamped "Dunhill London", On the other side: "Inner Tube" Pat. No. 5861/12 5. This patent was used between 1913 and 1926. Therefore, they are pieces of 1925. In the stem: Reg. N °: 654638 and in the case: PAt. N °: 141486/19.

The model of codes and acronyms was introduced in the early 1920's and remains to this day, however modifications have occurred over time.

The first image with the shape number 577 falls into this system, so 577 has no special meaning apart from describing / being the model for that particular pipe shape (in this case a specific group 2 Billiard with saddle mouthpiece). Around 1973, with the introduction of computers, new categories were introduced that indicated size, mouthpiece, and shape. As for the “T”, in 1952 a full-size “T” was added after the circled group size stamp to further describe the Tanshell finish (in 1953 the “T” was reduced to about half the size). So your pipe dates from 1952.

A 3-digit system (“Interim”) was developed that showed a first logical approach to identify pipes in terms of size, mouthpiece and shape, with the 1st digit being the size, the 2nd digit the mouthpiece and the 3rd digit the shape, i.e. the old “85” became a “321” which was a group 3 Apple with taper mouthpiece. This was soon to be replaced by a more detailed, formal 4- and 5-digit system around 1978.

The 5th digit indicated the style of bowl within the group of a similar classification, each identified by a last digit which could be any number between 1-9.

Some sources such as the Pipephil portal, indicate this change markings occurred in mid-1976, others in 1974. Either way, we offer the information that comes from an official source as follows in a 4 digit example:  

Although the 5-digit code was stamped on the pipe and thus was visible to the consumer, it was mostly used for internal production planning purposes and to a lesser extent for retail staff. It proved to be quite complex.