History and Culture
In Search of the First Shell: the Earliest Dunhill Shell Stamps
The question of which year Dunhill's earliest sandblasted Shell pipes can be assigned to; the registration timeline, the form of shank stamps, and the problem of examples that might date to before 1919.
The search for the first Shell is the name given to the debate over which year can be assigned to the earliest pipes Dunhill released with a sandblasted finish. Since no dated catalogue page or announcement introducing the series is known, the earliest years must be read from two indirect sources: the timeline of the registration paperwork and the stamps struck on the shanks of the pipes.
The oil-curing and sandblasting sequence covered by the patent is discussed in the entry The History of Dunhill Shell Briar.
The Timeline of the Registration Paperwork
| Date | Record |
|---|---|
| 13 October 1917 | British application filed |
| 12 April 1918 | Complete specification finalized |
| 14 October 1918 | British document No. 119708 published |
| 14 October 1918 | American application filed under serial no. 258,053 |
| 25 May 1920 | American patent registered under no. 1,341,418 |
The filing date shows that the American application was prepared without waiting for the British document to be issued. It is reported that the Canadian paperwork lagged the American process by a year at both stages, with the application filed in 1919 and the document granted in 1921; neither of these has been confirmed by an independent registration record. For the general place of patent records in dating, see the entry pipe patents.
What the Stamps Can and Cannot Tell Us
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Source: Pipedia, adapted under the CC BY-SA licence.