Charatan's Make London Belvedere 481DC/ Straight Volcano Poker Vulcanite Stem

CHARATAN'S MAKE, LONDON ENGLAND, BELVEDERE and 481DC on the shank, and a flat-topped bowl that stands up on its own base. This is a Charatan Belvedere in glassy, reddish smooth briar, a straight volcano poker on a vulcanite Double Comfort saddle stem with a fishtail bit.

It carries no filter. The 481DC is stamped clear; the three lines of the nomenclature are legible, with a few letters lighter than the rest.

Charatan's own catalogue of 1951 calls the firm England's oldest pipemakers, and the house dated its beginning to 1863 (one later source gives about 1873). Frederick Charatan started as a carver of meerschaum in a workshop in Mansell Street, in London's East End. He later moved to Prescot Street and took up briar, and he built his name on one idea: the whole pipe, bowl and stem alike, was made under his own roof from the rough block. CHARATAN'S MAKE, the words on this shank, were stamped to say exactly that, at a time when many pipes were put together from bowls and mouthpieces bought in from others.

Alfred Dunhill was a customer before he was a pipemaker: between 1908 and 1910 he bought his pipes from Charatan. Frederick's son Reuben took over the business in 1910. From 1955 the importer Herman G. Lane brought Charatan to the United States, and in the early 1960s Lane bought the company itself. Dunhill bought Lane in 1976 (some sources give 1978). In 1988 the Charatan name was sold to J.B. Russell and the pipes were made in France, until Dunhill took the name back around 2000 to 2002.

THE MARKS

- CHARATAN'S MAKE / LONDON ENGLAND / BELVEDERE stamped on the shank, in block capitals
- 481DC stamped on the shank
- A small white CP-style logo on the top of the stem
- REGD No 203573 on the stem

Belvedere is the grade. Charatan did not grade by shape but by the briar: a catalogue from the Lane years says its quality groupings differ "strictly upon the character of the grain", and it writes of the Belvedere: "The rich burgundy finish is traditional British coloring - permitting the deep, extraordinary graining of the pipe to stand out." Collector writers name Belvedere as one of the four basic grades of the years before Lane, below Executive, Selected and Supreme, while the maker's 1951 catalogue does not list it, so how old the name is remains open. On this pipe the finish is reddish and glassy; please see the photographs for the grain.

On Charatan's shape chart from the Lane years, 481 is the Gilpin, and a collector list on Pipedia describes the Gilpin as a poker with a Dublin-style bowl. The same chart explains that "the first digit of the shape numbers indicates group size", which places this pipe in group 4. A poker is built to stand: its bowl has a flat base, so the pipe can be set down upright on a desk with no stand. With a straight shank and stem the smoke travels a short, direct path. We describe this one as a straight volcano poker.

DC after the shape number marks the Double Comfort stem. It is a saddle stem whose bit steps down, so the part between the teeth is slimmer than the stem itself, and here it ends in a fishtail, which spreads the draw across the tongue. Lane introduced the Double Comfort as his first change to the way Charatan worked, and the mark helps to date a pipe: Ferrara, who studied more than two thousand Charatans, found DC only on pipes made after 1960, although some sources place the first Double Comfort stems in the 1950s. The nomenclature is in block capitals, the London form used until the name was sold in 1988; the script form of these words came back only after about 2000 to 2002. Read together, the marks point to London production, most likely between 1961 and 1987.

Condition: pre-smoked once, in excellent mint condition. Please see the photographs.

THE MEASUREMENTS

- Length: 156 mm (6.14 in)
- Bowl height: 53 mm (2.09 in)
- Bowl width: 40 mm (1.57 in)
- Chamber diameter: 20 mm (0.79 in)
- Chamber depth: 41 mm (1.61 in)
- Weight: 80 g (2.82 oz)

Ships from the Faridunhill archive. Worldwide shipping and professional sanitation on every estate pipe. SKU: 569