Open Questions

When Cadogan switched the stem C from a drilled one-piece inlay to a laser imprint. This is the single undated cliff on the brand and it matters, because it is the one mark that separates a 1980s Comoy's from a recent one. No published source gives a year — Green's guide says only "more recently." We have written to Cadogan themselves, who made both generations, and the fallbacks are Derek Green (who invites collector contact) and building a sequence of dated estate examples. Until somebody answers, our 1980–2000 and 1990-onward brackets are estimates and are ranked accordingly.

Whether Comoy's pipes have been made at all since the early 2000s. The smokingpipes house history states flatly that none have been produced since then. Green, writing in 2006, has Cadogan continuing production to the present day, and a 2013 trade piece is headlined "Comoys Come Back." We cannot reconcile the three, so we publish the dispute — and note its practical consequence: a Comoy's-stamped pipe that appears to be newer than about 2005 deserves a careful look rather than an assumption.

When the three-piece inlaid C was actually dropped. 1979 (smokingpipes) or the early 1980s (Green and pipephil)? Our bracket runs to 1985 to cover both. A dated example — a hallmarked band on a late three-piece-C pipe — would close this in one move, and it is the kind of thing a reader's own pipe could settle.

Where the LONDON MADE stamp really ends. About 1915 by one source, on into the 1930s by the other. That is a twenty-year disagreement on the brand's earliest stamp, and it is why our first bracket is as wide as it is.

Whether the Blue Riband was really named for the Queen Mary's 1936 crossing. It is presented as its author's belief and we have not been able to corroborate it: a search of the British newspaper record turned up no Comoy's Blue Riband advertising at all. We are not disputing the year — we simply cannot yet evidence it, and we would rather say so.

Which house owned the “City-de-Luxe” pipe. It appears in our own newspaper clips twice — sold in Buckie in 1931 at 5/6 "all shapes," and listed in a Bath wartime range in 1939 alongside Civic — which hints at the Cadogan or Civic family. We have deliberately encoded nothing, because a hint is not an attribution.

The shape numbers. Comoy's used three-digit shape codes and we hold a shape chart, but the classification has been described by a specialist as mercurial: a number was sometimes reused for a completely different shape. So we do not date by shape number alone and we have not built a shape channel for this brand — any future one will have to match number AND form. We do hold a few anchors: the Kruger Extraordinaire is 236, the Woodstock (later called the Danish) is 202, and a 1975 dealer catalogue prints a Vanguard shape list of 128, 186, 215, 296, 337 and 484.

Which grade carried which stamp in which year. Both of our main sources warn, independently, that different grades could carry different stamps in the same period. Neither has mapped it. Until somebody does, the honest instruction is the one we give above: never over-trust a single mark on this brand.

We do not hold a shield-shape or letter-font reference, and that is the single biggest gap on this page. The escutcheon around the date letter is what a professional uses to tell one cycle's lowercase e from another's; without it our engine returns candidates where it could return a year. A published, permission-clear shield typology for London and Birmingham would upgrade every ambiguous read we make.

Birmingham's two capital-O years, 1938 and 1963, cannot be separated on the band alone with what we hold. Every other mark on the pipe has to do that work.

Our charts cover London and Birmingham only. Chester is named in our own cabinet as a chart we intend to build and have not; Sheffield, Edinburgh and Glasgow are not built either. A pipe with a band from any of those offices currently gets nothing from us, and that is a coverage gap, not an evidence gap — the tables exist in the literature, we simply have not encoded them.

Dublin's chart lives inside the Peterson cabinet rather than in the general one, because its fineness boundaries are Dublin-specific. That means a NON-Peterson pipe with a Dublin-assayed band is not routed automatically today. Moving Dublin into the shared charts is a job on our list.

The Dublin fineness boundary is genuinely unsettled and we publish the conflict rather than a number: one handbook says the millesimal 925 mark replaced Hibernia in October 1992, another documents a 925 convention mark on export pipes from 1976, and our own encoding uses 2003. Until a primary source settles it we do not date from the fineness mark alone.

Our tables begin in 1876 for London and 1875 for Birmingham, and both stop at 1999. Earlier Victorian and Georgian cycles, and everything struck since 2000, are outside what we hold — so a genuinely early or a genuinely recent band gets an honest “not in our chart” rather than a guess.

We hold the changeover MONTH for each office — May at London, July at Birmingham, and 1 June until 1931 then 1 January at Dublin — but not the exact changeover day per year. That is why we publish a two-calendar-year straddle before 1975 instead of resolving it.

We do not hold a register of makers' or sponsors' marks. The EB WB of Barling is the one we can name; every other maker's mark on a pipe band is, to us, an unidentified pair of initials — and a sponsor's mark is often the fastest way to attribute an unmarked pipe.

The UK registered-design “Rd No” tables, which turn a registration number into a year from 1884 onward, are declared in our general cabinet as something to fetch and have not been fetched. That is a second exact-year route sitting unbuilt beside this one.

How often a hallmarked band on a pipe is a later repair rather than original work, nobody has quantified. We carry the warning and apply judgement; we would rather publish that than a false precision.

The end year of the “Made in Eire” circle: period sources disagree (1941 vs 1947). We publish the wide bracket until a primary source settles it.

The .925 fineness boundary on silver bands: one handbook says the millesimal 925 mark replaced Hibernia in October 1992, another documents a 925 convention mark on export pipes from 1976, while our encoded boundary is 2003. The conflict is recorded and unresolved — we do not guess.

Straight Patent-era shapes 29–36 (1896–c.1925): bare two-digit numbers collide with too many other marks to encode safely. Expert reading only.

The first year of the St. Patrick's Day pipes. Mark Irwin dates the series from 1998 and cites a dated primary document for it — the final Hollco-Rohr sales catalogue of 15 July 1998, which carries both the first St. Patrick's Day and the first 4th of July pipe. Pipedia says the pipe was first issued in the mid-1980s and was previously called the Flag Pipe. A dated catalogue is the stronger evidence, but it proves the series existed by 1998, not that nothing preceded it — so the floor stays at 1985 and the question stays open.

When the 306(a) XL Oom Paul actually stopped being made. The catalogue record ends cleanly in 1937; the only account of what followed is that it “probably continued in production for several years,” which is not a year. Our bracket runs to 1945 as a deliberate allowance, and the slimmer Shamrock 02 successor being in production by the late 1940s is the closest thing to a ceiling anyone has offered. A dated example — a hallmarked band or a datable country stamp on a genuine thick-shank 306 or 356 — would settle it in one move.

When the “Made in England” stamp begins and ends. Mark Irwin dates the London manufacturing factory at 74–77 White Lion Street from late 1937 to its dissolution on 5 September 1963, citing the London Gazette of 17 September 1963 — and two further posts of his say the same. Pipedia instead has Peterson keeping a London factory “since 1899” and the stamp ending in 1969/70; it appears to be counting the London shops, which did open in 1899. Because the two accounts differ at both ends we keep the wide 1895–1970 bracket rather than pick a winner, and publish 1937–1963 as the documented lean.

Whether a Peterson 309 made after 2013 is actually stamped 309. The shape's general production ended in 2013 and is well documented, but the same source records later appearances in the Derry Rustic and Arklow lines and a commissioned PPN 2024 309 System Spigot — while the same shape sold as the 2019 Pipe of the Year was stamped “4AB,” not 309. So our ceiling of 2024 is an allowance covering a real possibility, not a proven stamp. A clear photograph of the shank of a post-2013 309 would settle it in one move, in either direction.

When the 305(a) bent dublin actually stopped being made, and when it actually started. Neither end is nailed down. The start: the paper record launches it in the 1978 Peterson-Glass catalog, while our 1975 floor rests on one hallmarked example known from a photograph — so a second dated pre-1978 example, or a 1975–77 catalogue page, would turn a single pipe into a period. The end: the only statements anyone has published are that the calabash replaced it “as early as 1984” and that the larger version was “being replaced by the mid-1980s,” which is why our ceiling is 1986 and is an allowance rather than a finding. A hallmarked 305(a) from 1985 or 1986 would settle the far end in one move — and so, in the other direction, would a catalogue showing the dublin gone in 1984.

When the 308 actually left production. The catalogue trail is unusually rich for once and still does not close: a 1955 catalogue with a DISCONTINUED stamp on it of unknown date, a dated trade-press advertisement from May 1959 announcing a change to the System bent range, and then no new catalogue at all until 1965. Somewhere in those ten years the shape stopped. A hallmarked 308 from the early 1960s would settle it instantly — and would also tell us we were right to widen our bracket rather than trust the tidy year.

Whether the Chacom brand was created in 1928 or 1934. We publish 1928 because three records say so, including the company's own printed timeline, and only one page of one site says 1934 — but nobody has yet produced a dated 1928 or 1929 document naming the brand, which is what would end the argument for good.

The exact year Chapuis-Comoy became independent of Comoy's of London. We hold 1971 (Pipedia), 1972 (Pipephil's factory document), 1971 again (Pipephil's logo page, in passing) and a blurred digit that reads as 1973 in the company's own catalogue timeline. A dated trade-press announcement would settle it.

When the undated lines began: Cap Blanc, Concorde, Courbet, Premier, Prestige, Rocky, Synchro, Dynastie and Idéal. Every one of these is a line we can identify and cannot date. A dated catalogue or price list naming any of them turns a low into a real floor.

The 1979 Chacom catalogue. We have mined two undated catalogues already; the 1979 one would give us a third time point and let us publish first-seen and last-seen brackets for Chacom shape numbers, which nobody has done publicly as far as we know.

The precise date of the two catalogues we hold. The first carries “un siècle et demi d'expérience” on the cover — a century and a half from the family's 1825 origin, so about 1975 — but also a two-digit telephone number that belongs to a much earlier decade. Our honest bracket for it is 1957 to 1975, and we would love to close it.

Whether the bold tailed C really is an export stamp. Pipephil raises it and marks it unconfirmed; we have found nothing that confirms or refutes it.

Vintage Ropp, 1870 to 1991, has no cabinet of its own yet — so although Chapuis-Comoy has owned the name since 1994, we deliberately refuse to date any Ropp pipe from the Chacom cabinet. Building that cabinet is the honest fix, and it is on our list.

Whether Chacom ever stamped a year. We have found no year-stamped Chacom, which is why this guide has no exact-year table like the Peterson or Dunhill guides. If a commemorative or anniversary pipe carries a stamped year, we would like to see it.

When the seconds Bayard and Dr Berger were made. Both are documented as Chacom seconds and neither has a documented window.

Who WLD was. It is a clear circular stem stamp with a clear archaeological context and no maker behind it. Walker's four-volume Bristol study sits in our reference shelf unmined; if the initials are in it, this rule rises from low the day we read it.

Who cut the JOHN LEWIS and D.R. stems, and what the 1666 on the reverse of the John Lewis stem actually commemorates. We treat it as a decorative date-like device because that is the safe reading, not because we know.

The Tudor rose is almost certainly not one maker. Until somebody publishes a rose typology fine enough to separate the workshops that used it, the honest bracket is the whole seventeenth century.

Our dated-marks table holds five marks. The real corpus is thousands — Oswald's appendix alone lists hundreds of makers by county, with active dates and apprenticeships, and we have transcribed only the Bristol pages so far. Every county we add is a clay pipe somebody can suddenly date.

We do not hold the Atkinson & Oswald London bowl typology, which is the other master series alongside Oswald's regional plates. A London-made bowl is therefore weaker in our hands than a West Country one, and that is a gap in coverage, not in the evidence.

The bore methods carry a known regional and quality bias — the Chesapeake volume graphs it — and nobody, ourselves included, has turned that graph into a correction factor. We publish the warning without a fix.

The American terra-cotta and probable American-Indian pipes recorded at Pope's Fort fall outside all three legs of this system entirely. They are handmade or moulded in a different tradition and need their own dating framework, which we have not built.

Bowl typology is not machine-readable in our engine. Matching a silhouette to a plate is still a human job here, and until that changes, a bowl fragment gets a slower answer from us than a stem does.

When the registration stamp actually stopped. This is the brand's biggest open question and we publish both sides rather than choose: the factory's own Managing Director says late 1960s to very early 1970s, and documented stamped pipes exist at 1975, 1979 and 1982. Our bracket runs to 1985 to hold the stragglers; our lean is that the great majority are pre-1970. A dated example from 1983 or 1984 would tighten this immediately.

What the 1979 “Jubilee 1979” pipe commemorates. It is stamped STANWELL, REGD No. 969-48, Jubilee, 1979 — and is not one of the decennial jubilees. The mbsdpipes guide suggests it may mark ten years since the Borup factory opened, and says openly that it does not know.

When the Borup factory opened. pipephil says 1965; pipedia and Smokingpipes say 1969. It does not affect any dating rule here, so we have not forced a choice — but it is unresolved, and it matters to the 1979 jubilee question above.

The start year of the Silver S line. Our bracket opens at 1970 and that figure is approximate — it is on the verify list, not the evidence list.

The launch year of Golden Contrast. Tom Eltang dates the line to 1982; our bracket opens at 1975 and cannot yet be tightened without a second account.

Lines we hold with no usable years at all, and therefore do not date by name: Brass Band, Brazilia, Bamboo, De Luxe, Royal Prince, Star, Antique, and the Anne Julie line.

Whether horn stems were ever stamped with the Stanwell S in either of its forms. The guide that documents the horn era says explicitly that this is unclear.

A single photographed Stanwell Old Briar stamped “Made in England” exists in the pipedia gallery. We have NOT encoded it and will not date by it: one uncorroborated example never becomes a rule. If it is genuine it would open a chapter of Stanwell history nobody has written.

Breaking up the Registration Era. It runs 1948 to about 1979 and is by far the longest period in any Stanwell dating system — the author of the guide we rely on asks openly for someone to subdivide it. We would like to be the ones who do, and we do not yet have the evidence.

The Danish press record can probably be turned into primary evidence. Our survey found the specific months that matter — April, September, November and December 1948 — but the page text of post-1924 Danish newspapers is access-restricted, so we have counts and dates without the words. A scan request for roughly fifteen pages is prepared and pending.

Sub-brands and seconds are outside this guide entirely: Scandia, Danish Sovereign, Danske Club, Royal Danish, Royal Guard, Royal Sovereign, Majestic, Svendson, Sailor, Sorn, Henley, Kong Christian, Bijou, Reddish, Danish Quaint, Danish Natural. They carry their own numbering and deserve their own work.

The year the four-digit shape codes stopped. Three sources agree it happened and none will name a year: pipedia says circa the 1960s–1970s, pipephil says a four-digit pipe predates the 1970s, Smokingpipes says pre-1970. We close the bracket at 1979 and say openly that the true cliff is probably earlier.

We publish no floor for three-digit shape codes. A three-digit code only tells you the pipe is not early, and the transition years are exactly the years in dispute — encoding a floor there would be inventing precision we do not have.

The “second digit was always a zero” rule, relayed from Savinelli, is contradicted by pipephil's own La Milano stamped 4907. Both are published; neither is discarded.

When the Punto Oro Super ended — if it ended. Pipephil wrote in 2013 that it was cancelled a few years after its early-1980s launch, but Savinelli's current catalogue still lists it. We publish the floor only.

“Alligator” cannot date a pipe by name alone: a vintage Alligator line appears in the old brochures AND a modern colourful Alligator was introduced around 2005 (“probably close to 20” years before May 2025). Finish and stem context are needed.

Lines we hold with no usable years at all: Giubileo d'Oro, Elegance, Autograph, Oscar, Siena, Onda, Tundra, New Art, Arcobaleno, Ottavia (revived “lately” as the limited Ottagono), Riviera, and the “Favorite” editions (Bing's, Byron's, Clark's, Ginger's, Achille's I–III). The Columbus series is US-market only and is probably the 1992 anniversary issue — probably is not a source, so it stays here.

La Milano: one caption dates an example “circa 1949–50s.” A single uncorroborated example never becomes a rule.

Seconds and sub-brands follow their own rules and are not dated by this guide: Albatross, Bent Bob's, Baronet, Coronet, Duca, Hercules; Estella (rejected Autographs) and Fiammata (rejected Giubileo d'Oro straight grains); Arnold's, Kings Cross, Capt. Warren and Royal Oak on the US side.

The shop era before 1948. Pipedia holds photographed ASM-in-a-triangle and MILANO examples, but also an 'F. Savinelli Genova Silver 0115' pipe its own contributor cannot place — an 1880s Genoa shop pipe, or a 1950s one from the later Genoa shop? Unresolved, and we would welcome evidence.

The Savinelli shape chart (pipephil's, and the 2017 chart on pipedia) is a shape reference, not a dating channel: it carries no design years. Turning it into one is registered work, not a promise.

Reuben Charatan's death: the Ferrara study says 1960, Kennedy Barnes said 1962 on air. Both are recorded; we do not pick one, and the eras either side stay wide.

When Dunhill took Charatan: Ferrara documents the Lane purchase in April 1976, while Pipedia's main article says 1978. We publish both and date pipes from features, not from the ownership year.

Belvedere as a 1950s–60s Charatan line: a specialist dealer dates Belvedere examples to the tapered era, but Belvedere is not among the five 1951 qualities and we have found no dated primary for it. Not encoded — a dealer's era-guess is not evidence.

The Double Comfort's true first year: Charatan lore claims the 1950s, but no pre-1961 Double Comfort advertisement has surfaced in our newspaper and periodical sweeps. Until one does, the floor stays 1961.

“FH” on Charatan and Upshall stampings: documented on real pipes in both houses, meaning unresolved. We would rather say so than invent an expansion.

The Coronation grade at the top of the 1965 Lane ladder: the name suggests the 1953 coronation, but that is a guess and we have not verified it.

James Upshall's move from Tilshead in Wiltshire to Brenchley in Kent: the move is real — a 2006 snapshot places the workshop at Brenchley — but no source we hold gives the year, so it is not encoded as a location cliff.

What the P and S grade letters stand for: Kennedy Barnes was asked on air and his answer is partly lost in a phone-line dropout. A fragment sounds like “Perfection.” We will not publish a fragment as a fact.

The 1984 and 1996 Upshall cliffs remain low confidence: the founder interviews that could confirm them have audio gaps exactly where the answers should be. Re-processing those passages is a registered task.

The intro years for the later finishes (Chestnut, County, Amber Root) are approximate in our cabinet and not yet verbatim-verified against the guide — we publish them low-confidence and flagged rather than as firm floors.

The end year of the 5861/12 Inner Tube patent: pipephil's usage records (to 1926) and the Loring/Field guide table (to 1935) disagree. We keep the wide 1912–1935 bracket until a primary source settles it.

A bare “417574” without the /34 suffix can turn up on a late-1930s pipe; where it does, we widen the bracket honestly rather than force the 1942–1954 window.