Sasieni Four Dot Walnut 'Retford' (1946-1979) (Replacement Stem) Tobacco Pipe

Founded in 1919, the Sasieni brand was built on hard work and determination. Beginning his career as an apprentice at Charatan, Sasieni’s founder, Joel Sasieni, later rose in the ranks at Dunhill before venturing off to create his own pipes. Even when his factory burned down, Joel was quick to rebuild and continue his production of high-quality pipes. Known for pipes with excellent smoking properties, Sasieni popularized the method of “oven curing” briar, where each block spent up to six weeks in an oven, removing impurities and oils from the wood.

Drawing inspiration from his previous employer, Joel distinguished his pipes with blue dots instead of the Dunhill white. This choice resulted in a legal dispute between the two marques, and eventually the Sasieni Four Dot designation was born to differentiate the two — surpassed only by the marque’s prestigious and incredibly rare Eight Dot grade.

More than 30 years after Joel Sasieni’s death, his son Alfred continued to run the company with the same philosophies and passions as his father, but in the late 1970s, the company was sold and ownership passed from the Sasieni family. The decades of Joel and Alfred’s supervision are considered the brand’s most prestigious era, and pipes from this Pre-Transition period remain the most sought after today.