Dunhill Cumberland 54531 Large Sandblast Rhodesian Pipe, Diamond Shank, Cumberland Fishtail Stem, Ashton Leather Sleeve

This Dunhill Cumberland 54531 is a large Rhodesian with a sandblast finish, a diamond shank and a Cumberland diamond tapered stem. The shank and the stem curve gently together, so the whole pipe reads as one long arc from the bowl to the fishtail bit. It is smoked without a filter. It comes with a white Ashton Pipes leather sleeve from the owner's own collection.

THE MAKER
Dunhill's finish is also the name of the line, and each finish has its own start year. The first was Bruyere, a smooth deep red-brown, in 1910. The black sandblast, Shell, followed in 1917, and the tan sandblast, Tanshell, in 1952. Cumberland joined the range in 1979: a brindled reddish sandblast paired with a Cumberland stem. From 1912 Dunhill set its own mark into the top of the stem, the inlaid white spot, and it is on this stem too.

THE MARKS
- DUNHILL CUMBERLAND / MADE IN ENGLAND, with the date number 19, underlined, after ENGLAND
- 54531 in front of DUNHILL on the shank
- the white spot on the top of the stem

THE SHAPE AND THE STEM
Here the bowl is round, and the shank is cut in a diamond section. The number 54531 follows Dunhill's shape code: the first digit, 5, is the group size for a large pipe, and the second digit, 4, stands for a quarter-bent tapered mouthpiece. That second digit matches what the photographs show, a stem that leaves the diamond shank and bends down in one gentle curve. A fifth digit, as here, was used from 1976 to 1984 to mark the bowl style inside the group. The stem is Cumberland, with red-brown and black stripes, diamond in section where it meets the shank, tapered along its length and ending in a fishtail bit.

THE FINISH
The sandblast covers the bowl and shank in darker and lighter browns, the brindled reddish look of the Cumberland line.

DATING
The Cumberland finish came in 1979, and the five-digit shape code ran from 1976 to 1984, and both fit the year read from the stamp. From 1960 Dunhill stamped a running number after MADE IN ENGLAND, and the year is 1960 plus that number. On this pipe the number is 19, underlined, so it was made in 1979, the first year of the Cumberland finish.

THE SLEEVE
The pipe came without its original package. The owner adds a white leather drawstring sleeve stamped Ashton Pipes / MADE IN ENGLAND, one of two from his own collection. The sleeve is not original to this pipe.

Condition: pre-smoked, in good condition. The stem has a bite mark repair, as expected after long smoking.

Please see the photographs for the sandblast, the stamps, the white spot, the stem and the sleeve.

THE MEASUREMENTS
- Length: 165 mm (6.50 in)
- Bowl height: 53 mm (2.09 in)
- Bowl width: 38 mm (1.50 in)
- Chamber diameter: 20 mm (0.79 in)
- Chamber depth: 48 mm (1.89 in)
- Weight: 45 g (1.59 oz)

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

SKU: 644