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All our pipes are individually created by a team of
highly skilled artisans, headed by Mr. Barry Jones, who is widely
regarded as one of the best pipe carvers in the world, with more than 40 years experience in pipe making.
Mr. Jones learned his skill from the age of 15 in London
and was personally guided by Mr. Charatan of Charatan Pipe Co., pipe
makers to royalty since 1863. For years he was responsible for creating
the majority of the famous Charatan shapes and the high standard of quality.
In 1978, Barry Jones joined Colonel Kenneth Barnes, then
Charatans' managing director, who started his own pipe company in
Tilshead, Wiltshire, making the Tilshead and James Upshall premium class
pipe, which took it's name from the Colonel's ancestry, one James
Archimedes Upshall, an ardent pipe smoker, who loved quality and
perfection.
Ever since the company has been making hand turned,
straight grained pipes for the smoking connoisseur and has gone from
strength to strength gaining fame and the up most respect as one of the
greatest hand made pipe companies.
Pipe expert, Mr. Richard Carlton Hacker, author of "The
Ultimate Pipe Book" has stated that, "Barry has an almost
uncanny knack of finding the best concentration of grain. His Upshall
pipes are so distinctive you can immediately spot them in any pipe
rack". It's this grain pattern and quality that collectors prize so
highly.
The raw material we use for hand-turning pipes is
specially selected naturally dried plateau Briar from Greece. As opposed
to the kiln dried ebauchons, our briar guarantees lightweight, and
tremendous properties for absorbing heat, as well as tobacco moisture
and ensures a sweet smoke. Plateau blocks of considerable age, are of
added benefit to the real pipe smoker; a rich mature graining which
infrequently result in a perfect straight grain or birds eye pipe.
Each block of plateau briar is an individual piece of
nature, which has to be treated and worked accordingly. The turner's art
is to transform a well seasoned and naturally dried block into a
flawless pipe, which will give its owner years of smoking pleasure due
to its perfect smoking characteristics and great beauty.
At James Upshall, no part of the production is trusted
to pre-set machines or copy-fraisers. Each pipe is shaped on a single
flat bed lathe by chisel and the craftsman's artistic skill. Each James
Upshall pipe is the result of perfect briar quality as well as the skill
of the hand-turner, no two pipes are identical. Nature and man work
together to create the optimal pipe. All models are old English shapes
influenced by the hand-turner's creative mind.
James Upshall give a unique guarantee on each pipe
leaving the workshop. No pipe bearing the name of James Upshall is
marred by fillings and putty. Scarcity of good quality plateau briar and
the time consumed turning by hand, limit our production, but we
will always strive to fulfill the growing demand for James Upshall,
quality and tradition at its best.
As always the James Upshall pipe has been sold in the
most prestigious outlets around the world and has been greatly
appreciated by royalty, lords and celebrities alike. King Hussein of
Jordan, Anwar Sadat, Bing Crosby, Yul Brynner and more recently Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Robert Wagner and Tom Selleck to name but a few of the
famous names who have helped to cement James Upshalls' reputation as the
Rolls Royce of Pipes.
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