The shank carries a stamp we can quote in full: EMENIT CLASSIC BRIAR, and below it the number 802. That is all the pipe tells us about itself, and we print it exactly as stamped, no more and no less.

What we can identify with confidence is the shape and construction in front of us: a sandblasted bent dublin, briar, with a vulcanite saddle stem cut with a fishtail slot and no filter fitted. It has been smoked before and is offered as an estate pipe in that condition.

The dublin is one of the oldest bowl profiles in the pipe-making tradition: a bowl that widens gradually from a narrower base to a broader rim, the walls running in a straight taper rather than the rounded curve of a billiard or the flare of a Canadian. That taper is not decorative. It gives the smoker a slightly larger volume of tobacco at the rim without carrying that width all the way down to the heel, so the draw stays even from first light to last ash. Bending the shank and stem changes how the bowl sits in the hand and in the mouth: a bent dublin rides lower and further from the jaw than its straight sibling, and the eye reads the curve of stem into shank into bowl as one continuous line rather than three separate parts.

The saddle stem is worth a word on its own. Instead of the stem tapering smoothly down from a wide shank face, a saddle stem drops in a step, so the button end sits narrower in profile than the shank it leaves. It is a construction choice as much as a look: the step is cut to seat the bit comfortably against the teeth. The fishtail slot at the button - a broad, flared opening rather than a single round hole - spreads the smoke across a wider path as it leaves the stem, which is the traditional answer to keeping a dry, open draw on a pipe carrying no filter. Vulcanite, the hard rubber this stem is cut from, was the standard pipe stem material for most of the twentieth century: it takes a fine polish, it is workable enough to hand-cut a slot like this one, and it is also the material most prone to surface oxidation and to denting under the bite of daily use, which is exactly what this stem shows.

The sandblast finish on the bowl is produced by directing abrasive media at the briar under pressure once it is shaped. Briar grain is not uniform in density: the softer summer growth blasts away faster than the harder winter growth, and what is left standing after the process is the wood's own ring structure, raised into a texture you can read with a thumb as easily as with an eye. It is as much a practical finish as a decorative one, since a blasted surface hides small surface flaws that a smooth stain would expose, and it gives a secure grip that a polished bowl does not. Colour and grain detail on this particular bowl: see the photographs.

Condition: the pipe has been smoked and is in good estate condition. The rim shows darkening consistent with use. The vulcanite stem has dents. No cracks, fills, or repairs were reported.

THE MARKS
- EMENIT
- CLASSIC BRIAR
- 802

THE MEASUREMENTS
- Length: 150mm / 6.0 in
- Bowl height: 45mm / 1.8 in
- Bowl width: 42mm / 1.7 in
- Chamber depth: 40mm / 1.6 in
- Chamber diameter: 20mm / 0.8 in
- Weight: 1.25 oz

Ships from the Faridunhill / Pipe Collectors Encyclopedia archive. Worldwide shipping and professional sanitation on every estate pipe.

SKU: 180