Dunhill 482 Billiard

The Dunhill 482 Billiard is a documented but almost never discussed link in the Dunhill shape lineup. No record shows it appearing in any brand catalog; the shape's existence is known only from a handful of examples surfacing at long intervals. All but one of these are sandblasted Shell finish, and all conform to a large, straight-sided billiard profile.

Stamps and Dating

The stamps on known examples fall into two groups: some carry a British, others an American patent number. The year codes point to 1931 and 1935, and on some examples both codes appear side by side on the same shank. A double code struck years apart usually indicates a factory repair in Dunhill's stamping conventions. Here, however, no repair traces have been noted, and the second code is said to fall in exactly the same spot on each example, which has been read as suggesting the stamps may have been struck at a single sitting. Since this reading rests on a single examination, it cannot be considered settled. The year code following the patent number, or coming after the "ENGLAND" mark, is the standard practice of the period; for details, see the entry on Dunhill patent stamps and dating.

Size and Proportions

The 482's bowl stands roughly 2 3/8 inches tall. This is the largest bowl height found among Dunhill billiards that fall within the conventional letter-and-number shape sequence. The best comparison is the postwar ODA / 800 series' common member, the ODA 835, whose bowl height is given in commercial records as around 2 1/4 inches. The 482, then, stands roughly 1/8 inch taller, while its shank runs somewhat shorter. On paper the difference looks small, but it is considered large enough to be visible to the eye once the two pipes are set side by side.

A Gap in the Record

The main reason the shape remains so little known is the small number of examples that have circulated. Even among prominent collectors active in the 1980s, only a handful recall the 482 at all. Most of the pipes that have surfaced since came from estates that never passed through collector circles — that is, they never had the chance to circulate and become known. One example is reported to carry the codes 1936 and 1937 alongside 1931 and 1935.

Working from this scattered evidence, it has been suggested that the bowls were shaped around 1930-1931 with the large-pipe-inclined American market in mind, that production was suspended when sales stalled during the Depression years, and that the remaining bodies were only finished and sold in 1935. The same hypothesis adds that when the firm turned back to the same market in the late 1940s, it released a version with adjusted proportions under the name ODA 835. Neither claim has been independently confirmed by documentation; both are simply readings consistent with the surviving stamp examples. What is certain is that the finish is almost entirely Shell, and that the shape falls within the period when Shell Briar production was well established.