Ross Arundel

Ross Arundel is the brand under which Peter Ross, a tobacconist in a small town near England's south coast, sold pipes under his own name. It is not a factory but a retailer's brand: the bodies were made in other workshops, stamped with Ross's name, and delivered to customers by mail. Pipes bearing the same stamp therefore show noticeable differences in workmanship and shape language.

Peter Ross and the Mail-Order Scheme

According to accounts, in the years following the Second World War Peter Ross left his job in London and settled in Arundel, about eighty kilometers to the south. This West Sussex market town, known for its castle and cathedral, is a small settlement. Ross opened a tobacconist's shop there and prepared his own blends.

Sales moved to mail order by the mid-1950s. Ross first advertised in local newspapers, then in nationally distributed magazines; rural readers who could not easily reach a good tobacconist were the natural buyers of this arrangement. Pipes and cigars gradually joined the blends. A 1960 advertisement states that the bodies were made at an unnamed well-known London workshop; the same advertisement emphasizes that the pipes were unstained and unvarnished. This untreated surface is the brand's most consistent distinguishing feature.

Who Made the Bodies?

The name of this London workshop appears in no advertisement. What fills the gap is shape comparison by collectors: the bulk of the bodies match, number for number, the shape catalog of L. Orlik, founded in London by Louis Orlik in 1899. Some bodies with the number erased or never stamped also sit close to the same workshop in shape character.

Not all Ross Arundels came from a single hand. At least one bulldog body is thought to have come from the Ben Wade workshop within Charatan; other examples of unidentified origin also exist. Double-bore mouthpieces seen on some pipes are, meanwhile, a detail associated with Comoy's of London. One explanation is Orlik's joining the same group as Comoy's under the Cadogan umbrella in 1980 and the subsequent narrowing of its model range; it is plausible Ross turned to other suppliers around that time.

A Misattribution Problem

The brand was long thought to be one of Sasieni's secondary brands. The reason is that Sasieni was known in the American market by a brand called "Arundel." The resemblance between the two names is coincidental: Ross Arundel's shape numbers and body character do not match Sasieni's. Today the brand serves as a good example of how English retailer brands should be examined: the name on the stamp indicates the seller, while the shape of the body indicates the true maker.