Dunhill Large Billiard Variations (LB and 835 Variants)

Dunhill Large Billiard Variations is a collecting topic gathered around two large billiard shapes in the Dunhill catalogue, LB and ODA 835. The subject is less the shapes themselves than the individual examples that, while carrying the same stamp, deviate from the usual size and proportions. The brand reorganized its shape numbers into a three-digit system in 1975; the half-century before that covers most of these deviations.

The Divide Between the Thick Shank and the Pencil Shank

LB entered the catalogue after the First World War and became the brand's best-known large billiard. The body of the measurement stayed consistent throughout: a thick shank and a full, apple-like bowl. Against this, in the 1920s, mostly on sandblasted Shell surfaces, an entirely different line appears under the same stamp. In these examples the shank is markedly thinned, sometimes down to what could be called a "pencil shank," while the bowl becomes flat-sided and elongated.

Collector records report that these two lines also diverge in the stamping: a 7 was struck beside LB on slender-shanked Shells, while an 8 appeared on Bruyere LBs of the same years; the number here indicates not the shape but the inner tube code. It should be noted that this distinction has not been confirmed by an independent source and rests solely on collector studies. According to the same records, the slender-shanked line ends around 1930, and Shell LBs return to standard proportions.

The technical difference between the surfaces is cited as the reason for this latitude. In the early years of the Shell finish, sandblasting followed the grain, so the initial rough shape could change radically during the process. The material also differed: soft Algerian briar was used for Shell, hard Calabrian briar for Bruyere. Most Shells made for London shops before the war never carried a shape stamp at all — only the inner tube code — while pipes bound for export were stamped early on to simplify ordering. It is also reported that the 482 shape, made briefly in the 1930s, was referred to in company records as a "very large LB," though this is a second-hand account.

The Deviation Repeated in the ODA Era

When the ODA / 800 series came into use after the Second World War, 835 took the place of the large billiard. 832 is remembered as the series' first billiard; it stands out for its thickish bowl, a Canadian-length shank, and a short saddle bit. It is known that numbering within the series was only introduced in 1950, and that the handful of earlier examples carry only the "ODA" stamp with no number. 841, introduced a few years later, is a taller-bowled, longer, and thinner-shanked interpretation.

Early 835s do not settle into a single mould. Examples dated 1952 are unusually large, while one dated 1953 is thin enough to recall the pencil-shanked LBs of the 1920s. A small number of slender-shanked 835s were also recorded between 1961 and 1962; it is suggested that some arose from shortening flawed 841 shanks, and others were deliberately carved thin. This explanation, too, is presented in its source as a guess. The finish's effect on size is likewise known: within the same shape number, a pipe grows larger as one moves from Tanshell to Bruyere. The reason the pencil-shanked large billiard never entered the catalogue is said to be the thin shank's susceptibility to cracking, both in production and in use. The shape number list does not record these variations under a separate number.