English Estates: Charatan's Make Rarity Partially Sandblasted Bent Panel Tobacco Pipe

Part of Charatan's seldom-seen Rarity series, this bent Panel showcases a Cherrywood-like combination of features that's sure to stand out, even an expansive collection of Charatan pipes. The heel is semi-flattened and angled forward, granting the bowl a distinct slant as it grows tall, flaring, Dublin-esque walls that rise to a rearward-slanting rim. The transition is wide and slightly raised from the heel, giving way to a slender shank that lifts and extends to meet one of Charatan's iconic Double Comfort saddle stems, its black vulcanite poised in a smart arc. Dressed in a crisp partial sandblast, there's plenty of grain to appreciate here, alongside ample texture.

Charatan boasts a long, well-respected history of pipe making, with Frederick Charatan founding the business in 1863. One of the first pipe makers in England, Charatan began by producing meerschaum pipes, finding great success and quickly needing to relocate to a larger workshop, and it was here that Charatan began to carve briar pipes. Charatan has the rare distinction of being the first marque in England to hand-make their briar pipes from start to finish, starting with a raw block of burl and a vulcanite blank, coining the process with the now-iconic stamping of "Charatan's Make." Charatan was so successful that, before Dunhill began to make their own briars, Charatan actually supplied the legendary marque with pipes from 1908 to 1910. In 1962, then-leader Reuben Charatan passed away, and the rights to the Charatan brand were sold in the next few years to Lane, who was the primary distributor for their pipes. Charatan then changed hands several more times in the following years, before being bought by Dunhill in 2002.