Sasieni: Dating a Sasieni Pipe

Welcome: three owners, three eras

Welcome. If your pipe says Sasieni, this guide helps you place it in its era.

Joel Sasieni opened his London pipe factory in 1919. Before that he trained at Charatan and managed a Dunhill factory.

A Sasieni carries no year code. You can still place most pipes in an era, and some in a decade.

Our main source is Stephen P. Smith's article "Connecting the Dots" of 1996. It is published on Pipedia, the collectors' pipe website.

We checked it against the Sasieni time chart on pipephil.eu, a website of pipe markings.

The family era runs from 1919 to 1979. Joel ran the firm until his death in 1946. His son Alfred ran it until 1979.

The Transition era runs from 1979 to 1986. New owners bought the firm in 1979.

The Post-Transition era starts in 1986, when the firm was sold again. The pipephil chart names Dunhill as the buyer. Smith does not name the buyer.

Smith writes that the family-era pipes are the ones collectors want most. So the era matters more than the exact year.

The shape of the word Sasieni

Where to look first: the name stamp

Joel's pipes carry a very ornate script Sasieni. The tail of the last i sweeps back under the name.

Collectors call this the fish script, because the shape looks like a fish.

Alfred dropped the fish script soon after he took over in 1946. So a fish stamp means a pipe made before 1946.

Under the name, family pipes read LONDON MADE. American-market pipes made before the war add a patent number as a third line.

Between 1946 and 1950 the stamp changed to three lines: Sasieni, FOUR DOT, LONDON MADE. Here FOUR is spelled in letters.

From 1986 the stamp has two lines. The first reads Sasieni 4 Dot, with the number 4. The second names the finish, such as Natural or Ruff Root.

Smith calls the number 4 the easiest way to spot a Post-Transition pipe.

Count them, then look at their size and pattern

The blue dots on the stem

The first Sasieni pipes had one blue dot on the stem.

Dunhill objected, because the one dot was close to its own white spot. In Britain the one dot stayed.

Smith says the One Dot was made for Europe until the 1960s. The pipephil chart shows it ending about 1961.

In the USA, Sasieni changed to four blue dots set in a diamond. Smith dates this to the early or mid 1920s. The pipephil chart shows about 1924.

Before 1946 the four dots are small, and the diamond is long and narrow.

Between 1946 and 1950 Alfred made the dots larger. Now the diamond has four equal sides. The new owners made the dots larger again in 1979.

Each dot is a small blue rod set into a drilled hole. On an original stem the dots sit in a perfect pattern.

Crooked or uneven dots point to a replacement stem or a copy.

The blue runs from light blue to sky blue. The colour changes with age, so it does not date a pipe.

Line names from our cabinet, shown without a rank

Town names on the shank

Smith writes that by 1935 Sasieni stamped many shapes with a name. Most were English towns.

Hurlingham is an apple. Grosvenor and Danzey are bulldogs. Lincoln is a panel. Viscount Lascelles is a large bent.

Exeter and Pembroke are town names too. Smith describes the Exeter as close to a freehand.

Town names appear only on Four Dot and Eight Dot pipes, says Smith. The new owners removed them in 1979.

Our cabinet is our file of sourced dating facts for one maker. It gives the town names the years 1935 to 1979.

Smith wrote "by 1935", so the first year may be a little earlier.

FOUR DOT spelled in letters on the shank: 1946 to 1986, in our cabinet.

4 DOT with the number 4: 1986 onward, in our cabinet.

Fantail, a seconds line: 1950 to 1986, in our cabinet. Its patent is dated 21 July 1953.

The cabinet gives these line names years but no rank. So we list them here without a rank.

Four dots on each side of the stem

The Eight Dot

The Eight Dot has four blue dots on the left of the stem and four more on the right.

Smith dates its start to the late 1920s or the very early 1930s. The pipephil chart shows about 1927.

A photo caption on the Pipedia page calls one Eight Dot a 1926 pipe. So the start may be a year earlier than our range.

It stopped during the Second World War. Smith says it stayed in the catalogue through the war.

The pipephil chart shows it stopping about 1939. Our cabinet keeps the wider end, 1946.

Pre-war Eight Dots have the fish script and, for America, a patent number.

Seconds: pipes with a small flaw

Sasieni sold pipes with a small flaw under other names. Examples are Mayfair, Fantail, Olde English and Friar.

Most of these flaws were filled with putty. A Four Dot of the family era had a clean bowl.

Two Dot pipes were nearly good enough to be a Four Dot, says Smith.

The pipephil chart places the Two Dot from about 1961. That is one source only, so it is not a rule here.

We hold no firm years for most seconds, so this guide does not date them.

From 1986 the new owners stopped the seconds lines. After that, a 4 Dot pipe can have a putty fill.

Traps we see often

The 1979 Eight Dot: the new owners made about 100 Eight Dots in 1979. Accounts of the number differ.

Those pipes are natural finish, sometimes with a gold band. A blue string runs through bowl, shank and stem.

The string carries a lead seal and a paper tab signed by Alfred Sasieni. Check for these before calling an Eight Dot pre-war.

A patent number alone does not prove a pre-1946 pipe. Some plum finish pipes kept the patent after the war.

Large new-style dots with an old fish stamp mean a replacement stem, says Smith.

A European One Dot of the 1930s or 1940s looks like an American One Dot of the 1920s. Read the patent and the script.

Grosvenor is also a Charatan mark. Read the maker's name first.

A pipe without a town name is not dated by that. Many shapes never carried one.

The name stamp

Read the word Sasieni and the lines under it first.

The patent number

American-market pipes made before the war carry a patent number, usually starting 15.

The dots on the stem

Count the dots. Then look at their size and the shape of the diamond.

Changelog

• 2026-09-27 — First published. Every year comes from our Sasieni cabinet and the sources it names. Line names carry no rank, because the cabinet holds none for them.