Parker Super Briar Bark 140 Sandblast Pot Estate Pipe, Oval Shank, Vulcanite Fishtail Stem, 9mm Filter

PARKER, with SUPER inside a diamond and BRIAR BARK below it, is stamped on the shank of this pipe, together with 9MM, the number 140 and MADE IN LONDON over ENGLAND. It is a Parker Super Briar Bark pot in a craggy sandblast, with an oval shank and a vulcanite stem that ends in a fishtail bit, made for a 9 mm filter.

It has been pre-smoked and is in good condition. There is a scratch on the stem at the shank side, and the logo is very faint; please see the photographs for the chamber, the rim and the stem.

THE MARKS
- PARKER, on the shank, above a diamond with SUPER inside it
- BRIAR BARK, below the diamond
- 9MM, on the shank
- 140, on the shank
- MADE IN LONDON over ENGLAND, on the shank

THE MAKER
In 1922 Alfred Dunhill set up the Parker Pipe Co Ltd to finish and market Dunhill's "failings". Before then, Dunhill had marked such pipes itself, with an X over the stamp or with the words "Damaged Price". The first pipes under the Parker name followed in 1923.

Loring, in 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 never sold in Dunhill's own catalogues or shops.

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

THE SHAPE AND THE STEM
A pot bowl has fairly straight walls and a flat rim. Here it sits on an oval shank, a shank wider than it is tall. The black vulcanite stem ends in a fishtail bit, flattened and widening at the end, and with the stem out of the shank the tenon can be seen in the photographs.

THE FINISH AND THE GRAIN
The finish is a craggy sandblast. Blasting cuts away the softer wood and leaves the harder grain standing as ridges. On this pipe the blast is rugged and uneven, with ridges and pits over the sides of the bowl and the shank, and the rim is sandblasted too. A smooth panel on the shank carries the stamps.

DATING
Parker stamped a date code, a number after MADE IN LONDON over ENGLAND, from 1924 to 1957. No digit can be read 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. Another Super Briar Bark, with code 14, dates to 1937, which shows the line was made in that year; the line name alone does not date this pipe. No Parker shape chart has been found, so the meaning of 140 is not known.

THE MEASUREMENTS
- Length: 126 mm (4.96 in)
- Bowl height: 38 mm (1.50 in)
- Bowl width: 46 mm (1.81 in)
- Chamber diameter: 20 mm (0.79 in)
- Chamber depth: 27 mm (1.06 in)
- Weight: 46 g (1.62 oz)

Ships from the Faridunhill archive. Worldwide shipping and professional sanitation on every estate pipe. SKU: 631