Dunhill During the Second World War (WWII Phase)

WWII Phase is the heading used in Dunhill literature to describe the brand's years during and immediately after the Second World War. Spanning roughly 1939 to 1953, this stretch is set apart for collecting purposes for two reasons: production dropped sharply in number, and pipes from these years carry marks that do not follow the brand's usual stamp layout. Researchers trying to make sense of the period have to work backward from the small number of surviving examples and from the wartime supply conditions.

The Bombed Shop

Dunhill's shop at Duke Street, St. James's, in London, suffered heavy damage during the night raids known as the Blitz. Most sources place the destruction in the first half of 1941; some accounts give the date of the attack as 17 April 1941, though this detail rests on a single source and is not considered certain. The trade press of the time published a photograph of Alfred Henry Dunhill, then head of the company, holding a piece salvaged from the rubble; it was likewise reported in those years that sales continued in the midst of the wreckage. Repairing the building was delayed by postwar material restrictions; the shop was only restored to its former state in 1953.

Alfred Henry Dunhill had taken over as chairman of the company from his father in 1928. He held the position until 1961, when he handed it to his sister, Mary Dunhill; he died in 1971.

The Shortage of Raw Materials

The war and the rationing that followed it squeezed every stage of production. The Italian briar used for smooth-finish Dunhills became unavailable; blocks large enough for full-size bodies only reappeared after 1948, and even then in limited numbers and at heavy cost. The Algerian briar behind the sandblasted Shell finish was relatively less scarce. On the mouthpiece side, since vulcanite (ebonite) was rationed or, at times, banned outright, most of the pipes to emerge during the war years were fitted with horn mouthpieces. As horn's fragility revealed itself over time, examples dated to the same years but bearing vulcanite mouthpieces are found in collections today; these mouthpieces are believed to have been fitted later. The unusual color and grain appearance seen on some pieces is likewise attributed to a lack of enough stock to allow only the choicest sections of wood to be selected.

The clearest evidence of the contraction in production lies in the catalogs. Having published an annual catalog without interruption for thirty years, the company was unable to keep up that tradition through the 1940s. According to the account, the only printed examples surviving from the period are two "gift" catalogs, one distributed in North America around 1943, the other in Britain at the end of the decade.

Reading the Stamps

The wartime stamp layout is among the most disputed topics in Dunhill dating. According to the hypothesis put forward by John C. Loring, for part of the period only the brand, the finish, "MADE IN ENGLAND," and a single patent number were struck on the body; the date code and the inner-bore mark were dropped. Sources compiling stamp charts, on the other hand, build their measure around the number 417574: the number appearing on its own points to 1935-1941, while the same number with "/34" added to the end points to 1942-1954. The two approaches do not line up exactly; the number 1341418/20 that Loring expects on a wartime pipe is placed by the charts not in these years but earlier. That number is an American patent covering the oil treatment and sandblasting process and appears on Shells from the 1930s; it is reported to reappear, with a "U.S." prefix, on some pieces sent to North America during the war years. Another supporting clue is the possessive suffix: since the form "Dunhill's" was dropped in the mid-1930s, a plain "Dunhill" stamp without it places a piece after that date.