Not all estate pipes need major refurbishment work to bring them back to life, but, like everything else, benefit from regular cleaning and, every so often, a bit more involved TLC. The pipe on the worktable this time is a handsome Dunhill Chestnut in a classic Straight Billiard shape. It presented in reasonably good estate… Continue reading Refreshing a 1982 Dunhill Chestnut 51033 Billiard
I found this Harcourt (made by Preben Holm for Dunhill in the late 1970s and early 1980s) on a recent wander through a local antique mall and couldn't pass it up. This pipe has beautiful lines - a long, slender bowl shaped like a Tulip flower, plateaux rim and shank end and lovely vertical flame… Continue reading Refreshing a Beautiful Harcourt B Freehand Tulip
I was contacted by a pipe friend a little while ago to see if I would be interested in sprucing up an estate pipe he had recently won on eBay. Of course I said yes! The buyer was quite excited about this project - not only is it his first Dunhill, but it's also a… Continue reading Refreshing a 1965 Dunhill Bruyere 660 F/T
This pipe was sent to me for stem work to address some deep tooth dents. The rest of the pipe was in excellent estate condition, and arrived already cleaned (!), which meant I could focus on the work requested. Here are pics of the pipe as I first saw it on arrival. As you can… Continue reading Repairing Deep Tooth Dents in a 1940’s Dunhill Shell LV1 Straight Brandy
When it comes to the regular care and feeding of one’s pipes, it seems that pipe smokers can be divided into one of two camps – those who treat their pipes well and those that do not. In the first camp you will find people who clean their briar, meer or cob before it blocks… Continue reading Rescuing a Cracked & Beaten 1960 Dunhill Shell Briar 142 Dublin
I stumbled across this Dunhill Tanshell on eBay near the end of the auction period. The (relatively) low bid price told me that there was probably something significantly wrong with the pipe, the auction listing, or both. Curious, I read through the auction description, which was almost ridiculously brief, but accurate as far as it went:… Continue reading Reclaiming a Hard-Smoked 1969 Dunhill Tanshell “K” Apple
I spotted this Dunhill Dublin pipe on eBay. It was one of those listings that somehow flew almost completely under the radar, collecting just a few bids along the way. The eBay listing was chock full of superlatives extolling the many virtues of the product on offer, but I have learned to downplay or disregard… Continue reading Reworking a “Restored” 1948 Dunhill Patent A Dublin
By all accounts, the Danish Fancy pipe boom of the late 1960s and 1970s caught the great English pipe house of Dunhill unprepared. Dunhill was unable to produce the new Freehand shapes in-house, so if the firm was to capitalize on the surging demand for Danish pipes, it would have to look elsewhere. The answer came… Continue reading In Praise of International Cooperation – Cleaning Up a Large Harcourt Grade D Freehand by Preben Holm for Dunhill
An email pinged into my inbox a few weeks ago, sent by a fellow member of the Briars & Bull Pipe Club here in Kitchener. He had, he said, an old Dunhill pipe he'd like to have cleaned up, and would I be interested in tackling the project for him? I said yes, of course, and… Continue reading The English Patient – Repair & Restoration of a 1918-1921 Dunhill Shell Briar
This is the second pipe I've tackled from my recent auction lot. It is a Dunhill Shell Briar which met a horrible, Anne Boleyn-esque fate – off with its head! I'm guessing most of the auction lot came from the same estate, as no less than four of the 17 pipes had similar injuries. Was… Continue reading Resurrecting a Beheaded Dunhill Shell Briar Billiard
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