Big Ben Junior 66 Smooth Straight Rhodesian Miniature Estate Pipe, No Filter

BIG-BEN with its hyphen, JUNIOR under it and 66 on the shank: this is a Big Ben Junior 66, a miniature smooth straight Rhodesian for a quick smoke, a featherweight at 0.6 oz, on a vulcanite tapered stem with a fishtail mouthpiece and no filter.

It is pre-smoked and in good condition. A B logo on the stem was recorded when the pipe came in; it does not show in the photographs.

The bowl is round, 30 mm high and 30 mm wide, with two grooved lines near the rim, and the chamber is 25 mm deep and 20 mm across. A Rhodesian has a round bowl, often with grooved rings near the rim. With the stem out, a metal tube, a stinger, shows on the tenon. The stem narrows from the shank to the fishtail.

Big Ben came from the Gubbels family of Roermond, in the Netherlands, who began making pipes there in 1946. At a date the sources do not give, Gubbels bought the small Amsterdam trade company that held the BIG BEN rights, so that it could sell the pipes abroad.

In December 1972 the firm moved into a new factory in Roermond and was given the title Royal, as the Royal Dutch Pipe Factory. The Royal Dutch brand of that year was partly meant to answer the belief that Big Ben was of English origin. Elbert Gubbels & Sons filed for bankruptcy in March 2012.

THE MARKS

- BIG-BEN on the shank
- JUNIOR, under it
- 66 on the shank

The hyphen in Big-Ben is the Dutch brand's own spelling on documented examples, and the brand's stem logo is a B in a circle. Junior is one of the Big Ben line names, which carry no dates in the sources, and no year is stamped, so no date is given for this pipe.

The finish is smooth and glossy.

THE MEASUREMENTS

- Length: 132 mm
- Bowl height: 30 mm (1.2 in)
- Bowl width: 30 mm (1.2 in)
- Chamber diameter: 20 mm (0.8 in)
- Chamber depth: 25 mm (1.0 in)
- Weight: 0.6 oz

Ships from the Faridunhill archive. Worldwide shipping and professional sanitation on every estate pipe. SKU: 026