James Upshall B Grade EXL Smooth “Huntsman” w/ Cumberland Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

James Upshall was, along with Ferndown and Ashton, part of a new wave of British hand-made, high-grade pipes in the late 20th century, with their founders largely coming from previous positions in the factories of companies such as Dunhill and Charatan. James Upshall was founded in 1978 by Barry Jones and Ken Barnes, both of whom had previously worked for Charatan and who had worked their way up to being carvers Charatan’s higher-end, non-standard shapes. Jones and Barnes’ pipes quickly grew to being something of a status symbol, and were enjoyed by King Hussein of Jordan, Anwar Sadat, Bing Crosby, Yul Brynner, Robert Wagner and Tom Selleck. The company also made house-brand pipes for Astleys in London. James Upshall pipes are no longer made, but their reputation as some of the finest hand-turned British pipes continues to endure. After F. Charatan & Son was purchased by Alfred Dunhill Ltd., ending the former’s celebrated “Lane era,” there was a significant amount of concern that Charatan pipes would become a shadow of what they once were. After all, Dunhill was Charatan’s biggest domestic competitor, and the two had been in a somewhat heated rivalry for around seven decades by that point. It was not unreasonable to assume that Alfred Dunhill Ltd. would dilute the quality of Charatan pipes as a means of cementing the position of Dunhill pipes at the very top of English briars. Whether or not this was the case is a story for another listing. What matters is that, in the wake of Charatan’s acquisition, connoisseurs of handmade English pipes were able to breathe a sigh of relief with the founding of the Tilshead Pipe Company, whose flagship product was the James Upshall pipe. Barnes and Jones and their colleagues were seen by many to be the inheritors of Charatan’s legacy. In other words, if one could no longer buy Charatan pipes of the quality seen in the Reuben era and the Lane era, one could still buy a James Upshall pipe and get much the same, if not better. But quality was not the only thing James Upshall inherited from Charatan. The styles pursued by Charatan under Reuben and Lane also continued through James Upshall. Many classic Charatan shapes were taken up once more by the Tilshead workshop, as were the naming conventions first established by Reuben Charatan. Reuben’s distinctive, clay-inspired “Newmarket” stack was a staple within James Upshall’s output, for example, as was another Reuben shape, seen here: the “Huntsman.” Today, we might call it a “Zulu” or, if we wanted to be more precise, a Yachtsman, but to Reuben it was the “61” “Huntsman,” possibly because of its resemblance to a kind of horn. We’ve seen a few Huntsman renditions come through the estates pipeline in the past, though I think this might be the highest grade James Upshall rendition thus far. It is a “B” grade, which was a high-grade even compared to James Upshall’s “standard” output, and which was the Tilshead workshop’s answer to Charatan’s straight grain “Executive” grade. Two other things stand out about this one, however. One is that it is not simply a “B” grade, but an oversized “B,” carrying the “Ex.L,” or “Extra Large,” designation, which was also likely carried over from Charatan. Unlike any Charatan pipe I’ve seen, on the other hand, this superbly grained Huntsman is also fitted with a hand-cut cumberland mouthpiece. While the majority of James Upshall pipes had black vulcanite mouthpieces, a few custom orders featured acrylic, and fewer still featured cumberland, with the latter being accompanied by a sharp premium. This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating.   Details: Length: 7.5″ / 190.5mm Bowl Width: 0.94 / 23.87mm Bowl Depth: 1.72″ / 43.68mm Weight: 3.3oz / 94g

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