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filter, and the famous White Spot, probably the best known "designer logo" in the tobacco world.
Company legend has it that the White Spot was drilled into the top side of the Dunhill mouthpiece so that the mouthpiece could be re-inserted into the shank right side up after removal for cleaning. Whether or not this is myth is a matter of religious faith. Nevertheless, it does suggest that the tenon hole was drilled so perfectly and the pipestem so expertly formed that a 180-degree twist of the mouthpiece would be indistinguishable.
The secret that makes these Dunhill pipes so sought after? First of all, they are cured by means of "stoving," a patented baking process in which the semi-finished bowls are individually placed on brass pegs and subjected to a low, constant heat for a long period. This sweats out latent moisture and oils that might be activated by heat during smoking, potentially causing a bitter, acrid taste. Moreover, the drying allows the new bowl to more readily form a carbon cake from the burning tobacco. The bowls are finished with stains and waxes but no varnishes, so that the wood is not sealed | permanently and the pipe can "breathe." The hand-cut mouthpiece is made from a solid vulcanite rod and is individually bored and fitted to each pipe. (Most other pipes use ready-made, pre-molded, mass-produced mouthpieces that are shaped and buffed to fit the pipe bowl rather than made especially for it.) Finally, the finished pipe is subject to rigorous inspection to insure that it is free from flaws in the wood: no putty, no fill-ins to cover fissures or flaws which turn up in the organic material when it is being sanded and polished. Less-than-perfect specimens are either sold off to other manufacturers or, as "fallings," become a respectable product in another line made by Dunhill, that does not carry the company name.
There are, to be sure, many other brands of fine pipes in the world, and some just plain "good" pipes which may lack the Dunhill cachet, but have price on their side. Charatan is actually now owned and made by Dunhill, and Sassieni, and excellent value at a modest price, is made by Dunhill for importer James B. Russell. Comoy, Peterson, GBD, and Peterson are still on the market at good value, and pipes from small factories such as James Upshall and Ashton are first-rate in any comparison. Less classical but with a flair of their own are Italian pipes such as Don Carlos, made by Bruno Sordini, which Barclay-Rex says outsells all of its competitors. Many of the above are available in perfect straight grain, a feature that is very rare and enormously expensive, and Dunhill chooses not to focus on. Joe Rowe, the national sales director for Lane Limited, a company which once owned Charatan and now distributes Dunhill pipes, tobaccos, and smokers accessories in the U.S. says, "Charatan always sorted for grain, Dunhill for size and character. Straight grain doesn't make a pipe smoke better; tight grain in well-cured, aged root briar does." That was Dunhill's mission accomplished. The Dunhill pipe is fixed in the mind of smokers and the tobacco trade as the most "English" of pipes. There is a certain justification |
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arked with the white spot and featuring a bruyere (French for "briar") with a dark reddish-brown finish, the pipe was sold for seven shillings, six pence ($1.88), almost twice as much as comparable products, and was quickly popular with the officers and gentlemen of St. James's who were the mainstay of Dunhill's business in those pre-World War I days. The war created a great overseas demand for the pipes, which were shipped to officers and troops at the front, along with tobacco and cigars, further popularizing the trade name among allied military men from other countries. In 1917, when the "shell" sandblasted finish was introduced and quickly became a success, Dunhill's international reputation was carved in briar.