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Brand Dating Guides
BBB is the oldest registered pipe trademark in England. Its pipes carry no date code. The stem logo, the line name, a patent number and a silver hallmark give honest brackets.
Updated 2026-09-28
Welcome. If your pipe carries BBB in a diamond, this guide is for you.
BBB pipes carry no date code. So we read other marks instead.
We read the stem logo, the line name, a patent number and the silver band.
Each mark gives a range of years. Where the ranges overlap, that is our answer.
Our main sources are Pipedia and Pipephil. Pipedia is an online pipe encyclopedia. Pipephil is a website of pipe markings.
Where sources disagree, we show both. We say when a fact has one source only.
Each rule has a rank: high, medium or low. The rank says how sure we are of the years.
From a London importer to the Cadogan group
In 1847 Adolph Frankau started A. Frankau and Co in London. He imported meerschaum pipes, says Pipedia.
Frankau died in 1856. Louis Blumfeld, then 18 years old, took over the firm (Pipedia).
BBB first meant Blumfeld's Best Briars. Later people read it as Britain's Best Briars.
Our own archive holds a Manchester newspaper advertisement of 26 December 1873.
It offers B.B.B. briars "from the best French makers". So BBB pipes were on sale before 1876.
On 1 January 1876 the BBB diamond was filed as a trademark (Pipedia). Pipedia calls it the first pipe trademark in England.
The Leeds Mercury of 29 June 1881 describes the mark as "three B's in a diamond". We hold that advertisement.
The first BBB pipes were probably imported, says Pipedia. Cheap lines probably came from Saint-Claude in France.
In 1898 the firm opened its own factory in Homerton, in London (Pipedia).
In the 1920s the firm joined A. Oppenheimer and Co. Oppenheimer also owned Comoy's, Loewe and GBD.
Oppenheimer then formed Cadogan. Pipedia's BBB page says this was in the 1930s.
Pipedia's GBD page says the early 1920s. We show both.
In 1980 Cadogan bought Orlik. After that, it made its pipes in one factory in Southend-on-Sea (Pipedia).
Richard Esserman thinks BBB turned Dunhill's Bent Magnum bowls until about 1923. One source only.
Metal diamond or stamped logo
Look at the top of the stem.
Older BBB pipes have a small metal diamond with BBB set into the stem.
Later pipes, made after the move to Southend, have a logo stamped on the stem. GBD pipes changed the same way.
In the 1930s only the top lines got the metal BBB. Cheaper lines had the letters engraved only, says Pipedia.
The change year is not exact. Our two ranges overlap from 1980 to 1985 for that reason.
An exact year, when the band is hallmarked
BBB fitted a silver band to many of its pipes.
Pipedia shows hallmarked BBB bands from 1882, 1905, 1907, 1908, 1911, 1912 and 1920.
A hallmark is the small set of stamps an assay office puts on real silver. One stamp is a letter for the year.
Read the band with our UK silver hallmarks guide. It can give the year the band was marked.
A band with no hallmark tells you nothing. A missing mark never dates a pipe.
Years with no rank
Our cabinet gives these line names years but no rank. So we list them here without a rank.
Own Make: the first top grade. It existed by about 1900, says Pipedia. We allow from 1890.
Mackenzie: a paper-filter pipe. A letter of 27 August 1891 already speaks of it.
The Mackenzie name lasted into the 1960s. Pipephil quotes this from a paper by Jacques Cole. Pipedia says the same.
Our range for Mackenzie is 1891 to 1969.
Glokar: BBB's system pipe, a reply to the Peterson system. Its patent year is 1905 (Pipedia).
Pipedia shows Glokar pipes hallmarked 1905 to 1913. We hold no end year, so we allow to 1935.
Best Make: it replaced Own Make as the top grade in the 1930s (Pipedia). It is still a Cadogan grade. We allow from 1930.
Two Star, stamped with two stars: the cheapest line of the 1930s (Pipedia). Our range is 1930 to 1980.
Carlton: a pipe with a metal system. Pipedia says it sold at 8 shillings 6 pence in 1938. Our range is 1938 to 1975.
London Dry: it used the same metal system as the Carlton (Pipedia). Our range is 1935 to 1975.
Rare Grain and Thorneycroft: steady Own Make lines of the mid-1950s and 1960s (Pipedia). Our range is 1950 to 1975.
Guardsman: a two-part stem, patent 35054/62 (Pipedia). Our range is 1962 to 1985.
The end years of Glokar, Carlton, London Dry, Rare Grain, Thorneycroft and Two Star are our own estimates.
The number on the shank, such as 414 or 636, is a shape number. It is never a year.
Virgin and Walnut are BBB line names. They are also common finish words, and Comoy's used Virgin.
So we do not date a pipe by those two words.
Blue Peter pipes were stamped BBB Ultonia, not BBB alone. Ultonia and Last Word may be separate brands.
The same firm sold other brands: Capt. Kidd, Fairway, Frankau's, Major Daff and Snap-Fit. They follow their own rules.
Pipedia prints the Guardsman patent once as 36054/62. The pipe itself is stamped 35054/62.
LONDON MADE does not prove a London factory. Before 1898, BBB had no London factory of its own.
Best Make appears on old and on late pipes. On its own it does not date a pipe.
The country stamp gives only the widest range. It starts at the 1876 trademark.
LONDON MADE, MADE IN ENGLAND, ENGLAND or LONDON
1876 is the trademark year. Pipedia says the London factory opened in 1898. Earlier pipes and cheap lines came from France.
Look at the top of the stem. Is the BBB diamond set in metal, or stamped on?
Metal diamond with BBB set into the stem
Before the move to Southend after 1980. The end year is approximate. It follows the same change on GBD pipes.
BBB logo stamped on the stem
After Cadogan moved its pipe making to Southend. GBD pipes changed the same way.
Read the shank and the stem for a patent number.
PAT. No 35054/62 (Guardsman)
Pipedia prints the patent: filed 14 September 1962, granted in 1963. The end year is approximate.
What We Don't Know Yet
Published deliberately. If you hold the catalogue, hallmarked example, or period document that closes one of these gaps, write to us — corrections are credited. Every open question across the encyclopedia is gathered on the Open Questions page.
Changelog
Sources
Holding a BBByou can't place? Our shelves usually hold a few — documented to this same standard.
BBB in the Shop