Parker 9mm 810 Smooth Bent Pot Estate Pipe, Diamond Shank, Metal Band, Vulcanite Saddle Stem, Fishtail Bit

PARKER 9MM and the number 810 are stamped on one side of the shank, MADE IN LONDON over ENGLAND on the other. This is a Parker bent pot in a smooth finish, with a diamond shank, a metal band and a vulcanite saddle stem that ends in a fishtail bit, made for a 9 mm filter.

It has been pre-smoked and is in very good condition. PARKER 9MM reads clearly, the 8 of 810 is faint, and some letters of LONDON are faint; please see the photographs for the chamber, the rim and the stem.

THE MARKS
- PARKER 9MM, on the shank
- 810, on the shank, below PARKER
- MADE IN LONDON over ENGLAND, on the other side of the shank
- Small marks on the metal band, not readable in the photographs

THE MAKER
Parker began inside the house of Dunhill. In 1922 Alfred Dunhill formed the Parker Pipe Co Ltd to finish and sell Dunhill's "failings"; before that, Dunhill had marked such pipes with an X over the stamp or the words "Damaged Price". The first Parker pipes followed in 1923.

Loring, writing on the Dunhill briar pipe, cautions that very few Parkers are true Dunhill failings: most were graded out before finishing, and briar was also bought elsewhere. Parker was also kept apart in the shop: it was never sold in Dunhill's own catalogues or stores.

In 1935 Dunhill opened a factory next door to Hardcastle, bought 49% of Hardcastle in 1936 and the rest in 1946. During the Second World War Parker was not a government-approved briar maker, and it made the bakelite-and-clay "Wunup" instead. In 1967 Parker-Hardcastle Limited was formed. In the United States the name was strong from the 1930s to the 1950s, faded, and was brought back in 1991.

THE SHAPE AND THE STEM
A pot bowl has fairly straight walls and a flat rim. Here the pot is bent, and it sits on a diamond shank, a shank with flat sides. The saddle of the stem has flat sides too, and a metal band sits at the end of the shank, before the stem.

A saddle stem has a wide flat section at the shank and steps down to a thinner bit; on this pipe it ends in a fishtail, flattened and widening at the end. The stamp names the 9 mm filter, and with the stem out the tenon can be seen in the photographs.

THE FINISH AND THE GRAIN
The finish is smooth. Birdseye, the small round dots in the grain, shows on the shank beside the PARKER stamp, and straight grain lines run on the other side of the shank. Grain also shows on the sides of the bowl.

DATING
Parker stamped a date code, a number after MADE IN LONDON over ENGLAND, from 1924 to 1957. No number shows after ENGLAND on this shank, so the year cannot be fixed from the stamps: a Parker with no code can be from 1923, from after 1957, or carry a code that has worn away. The plain PARKER (not PARKER'S) does not narrow it either, and the number 810 has been seen on another Parker, a Super Bruyere, with no shape name given for it.

THE MEASUREMENTS
- Length: 148 mm (5.83 in)
- Bowl height: 51 mm (2.01 in)
- Bowl width: 43 mm (1.69 in)
- Chamber diameter: 20 mm (0.79 in)
- Chamber depth: 42 mm (1.65 in)
- Weight: 61 g (2.15 oz)

Ships from the Faridunhill archive. Worldwide shipping and professional sanitation on every estate pipe. SKU: 628