Postwar Dunhill ODA / 800 Series

The postwar ODA / 800 series is the name given to the group of large-bowl pipes Dunhill released after the Second World War. Pipes in the series carry the abbreviation OD plus an added grade letter on the shank, with an 800-series shape number directly beneath it. Because ODA is the stamping most commonly encountered, the community refers to the whole group in short as "the ODAs" or "the 800 series."

Origins of the Series

The new, large-bodied shapes were introduced in 1950; over the following two years distribution is said to have widened and the series to have become regularly available. This timeline draws a clear line between the series and the constrained wartime production that preceded it; while wartime Dunhill production had narrowed in both material and workmanship, the 800 series represents the brand's return to a broad product range.

The OD abbreviation was actually inherited from an older practice at the brand — the custom-shaped pipes made to a customer's own specifications. After 1950 the stamping's meaning changed: it no longer indicated a single pipe carved to order, but a standard large-size series listed in the catalogue. On prewar OD pipes the letter corresponded to a grading scale running from A to J; what the letter precisely measures on the postwar series has not been confirmed by any official document. In practice, stampings such as ODB are found alongside ODA, and reading them is considered a separate subject.

Shapes and Numbering

The series' shape numbers cluster mainly between 806 and 857; not every number in that range was used. John C. Loring's illustrated list also counts shape numbers 801, 802, 805, and 866 within the series. The numbers correspond to enlarged interpretations of the classic repertoire: 830 is a Liverpool, 837 a bulldog, 838 and 847 rhodesians, 840 a bent billiard, 844 a poker, 848 a dublin, and 850 and 855 are long-shanked shapes from the Canadian family. In size, the series is considered to sit at the very top of the brand's own grouping system, above the standard catalogue.

The five-digit Dunhill shape-numbering system introduced later also covers these shapes; but because a single five-digit number can correspond to more than one similar shape, the matches are approximate rather than exact. For this reason, rather than relying on the five-digit number alone to identify a pipe, bowl size, shank cross-section, and mouthpiece shape are considered together. For numbering details, the Dunhill shape list is the primary reference.

Status Today

The old coding system based on the letter-and-number combination is generally understood to have been largely abandoned later in the 1970s; but the 800-series shape numbers survived. The ODA stamping continues to be used in current production, and the series is regarded as the best-known branch of the brand's large-pipe tradition.