Directory of British Pipe Brands (2/2)

The Directory of British Pipe Brands brings together, in one place, brands made in Britain or sold under a British stamp whose records are too thin to support a standalone entry. A distinctive feature of British pipe making is that a small number of large factories produced under a great many names: organizations such as Oppenheimer, Cadogan, Comoy's, Dunhill, and Sasieni put out both their own brands and specially stamped lines for tobacconist shops. Most of the entries below consist of exactly these secondary brands, shop stamps, and short-lived trade names; this second part of the directory covers the range between Paget & Paget and York House.

Brands

• Paget & Paget — pipes stamped with this name are thought to be early Comoy's products prepared as a shop brand. The example on record points to the 1930s.

• Peter Piper — the trade name was first used on a pipe in 1925 and registered on June 1, 1926, in the name of the London-based Cadogan France Limited. Although the stamp carries a London address, the pipes were made at the Marechal Ruchon factory in Saint-Claude, France. This gap between where the stamp points and where the bench actually stood comes up often in brands involving Oppenheimer and Cadogan.

• Plumb — researchers have confirmed that Peacemaker examples stamped only "Plumb" belong to the same maker as the Dr. Plumb's brand.

• Pollock Clay Pipes — John Pollock & Company of Manchester began making clay pipes in 1879, and production continued until Gordon Pollock's retirement in 1992. Production continued after the molds and brand were bought by Wilsons & Company, and some of the original hand-pressed molds remain in use.

• Pomeroy & Cooke Ltd. — the brand of English craftsmen based in Holcut, near Northampton, who made pipes from block meerschaum. Their promotion emphasized that they were makers of quality block meerschaum. Records mention it alongside Jambo and London Meerschaum.

• Portland — Portland-stamped pipes are documented, but the brand's connection to Portland Pipe Co. has not been confirmed. No further record exists beyond this.

• Prince Charles — the stamp carries the word EXTRA beneath the brand name, with a MADE IN ENGLAND marking on the right. Some examples were prepared for a tobacconist called Tobacco Tree and carry a tenth-anniversary wording; no record exists of that shop.

• Redmanol — Redmanol is not actually a brand but an early plastic developed in the early twentieth century by A. W. Bishop and Redmanol Chemical Products, widely used as a substitute for amber. Pipes known under this name are noted to be products of Reiss-Premier, as shown by the P stamp inside a tilted diamond, with Redmanol having supplied only the material.

• Redonian — production of pipes carrying this name is traced to the names John Redman Ltd. and British Empire Pipe Co.

• Riseagle — one of the many names held by the Oppenheimer pipe group; listed in a group catalog dated to around the 1950s.

• Royal Ascot — records indicate a brand made in France for Duncan, aimed at the American market and distributed through Mastercraft; many examples carry an Algerian briar wording and a crown emblem on the stem. Pipes made in England under the same name, with a horseshoe emblem, also exist; whether these belong to the same organization is unclear.

• Royal Triumph — a sideline of the Orlik brand; the known example has a crown stamp struck on the stem. The same maker also used the name Royal Sovereign.

• Salmon & Gluckstein — a distribution chain that operated with more than a hundred branches in England at the start of the twentieth century and had its own pipe catalog; its pipes were most likely made in La Bruyère. After being bought by Imperial Tobacco Co., the shops came to be known under the name Bewlay.

• Saville — a pipe brand carrying the Beney, Ltd. signature.

• Savory's — one of Dunhill's sidelines. The trade name H. L. Savory's & Co. was registered on January 1, 1886, and remained valid until 1993; the brand is noted to have passed to Dunhill in 1932. It is one of the sidelines within the same group as Hardcastle, Ben Wade, Charatan, and Parker. Savory's is also the name of a tobacconist shop on High Street in Oxford.

• Sefton — a line prepared for E. Deguingand & Son.

• Silver Dart — like Riseagle, one of the Oppenheimer group's brands, appearing in the same 1950s catalog.

• Simmons — the brand of tobacconist H. Simmons, located in Burlington Arcade, London. It was bought by Dunhill in the late 1980s.

• St James — one of Comoy's second-quality lines. One known example also carries the stamp of Sutliff, a tobacconist that opened in San Francisco in 1849.

• Statesman — a sideline Comoy's launched in its early production years, spanning, judging by its stamps, from the 1930s to the 1980s. The first stamp has the brand name in cursive form with MADE IN ENGLAND beneath it; a later period added MADE IN LONDON and ENGLAND within a circle. A horizontal red bar set into the left side of the stem is the brand's emblem. With its examples of straight, unfilled grain, it is considered a top-tier line.

• Strand — English-made pipes stamped with the words Strand and Sample are known; their markings match early Sasieni products dated to around the 1930s. A very similar stamp layout is also seen on the Craven brand.

• Tally Ho — a Hardcastle-made brand. London-made examples carry patent stamp number 227665.

• Taylor & Breeden — a tobacconist and pipe seller operating on Cross Street in Manchester. Although the organization's origins are traced back to 1851, the business was founded in 1900 or 1901 by Joseph Taylor and Henry Breeden, and was wound up in 1981. It is noted that early briar and meerschaum pipes were made on site or nearby, while in later years pipes were commissioned under its own name from well-known English manufacturers such as Barling, GBD, and Comoy's.

• Tower of London — only pipes carrying the Tower stamp together with the wording London Finish are known. The maker behind the stamp has not been identified, nor has it been established whether the name is tied to a single organization.

• V.I.P. — the London address and stamp layout suggest that the Virgin model known under this name may be a GBD product. It has no connection to the Gasparini brand, which uses the same letters.

• Varsity — London Varsity is listed among Sasieni's second-quality names; examples stamped LONDON MADE are consistent with this line. The same name was also used on Brylon pipes made by Medico, though these are not of London manufacture.

• Vuillard & Strauss — Vuillard & Strauss Ltd., located on Fann Street in London, was the British trade representative of Vuillard of Saint-Claude; the pipes are accepted to have been made there. To reduce the tax burden, the bowl and stem were shipped separately, with the stamps struck on the island; this is why the products carry the wording Made in London. A patent for an interchangeable-bowl system pipe, applied for by general manager Maurice Strauss in October 1928, was registered in September 1929. Names used by the organization include Lord and Turf.

• William Henry Pierce — according to silver hallmark records, pipes carrying the unframed WHP and W.H.P. stamps are attributed to William Henry Pierce, who worked in Manchester. Records point to around 1883.

• York House — pipes stamped York House Rosebery are thought to be Comoy's products, judging by the MADE IN ENGLAND marking and by the fact that the name Rosebery Extra appears among Comoy's secondary lines.