Dunhill's Additional Stamps

Dunhill's additional stamps is the common name for the secondary marks seen on the shank of a Dunhill pipe beyond the shape code and year code. The primary stamps that give a pipe's year of manufacture are the subject of Dunhill patent stamps and dating; what is covered here are the strikes sitting at the edge of that system, which often look meaningless read on their own.

The most practical way to decode these marks is to ask who struck them: some belong to the factory's own recording conventions, while others were added after the pipe left the factory. Most of what is known rests on examples accumulated over the years by researchers such as John C. Loring; the brand's own stamp ledger is incomplete for the early period.

Marks Coming From the Factory's Own Conventions

Pipes carrying the abbreviation H.W or H.Wo on the shank are bodies shaped without machine assistance, from the early 1920s to the late 1930s; the abbreviation stands for "hand worked." It is accepted that being hand-worked does not by itself imply a higher class. The same concept continues in today's production with the abbreviation HT (Hand Turned).

The letter "C" cannot be tied to a single meaning. From the 1920s to the 1960s, when placed before the shape code it indicated the pipe was made as a long-shanked churchwarden; on churchwarden-bitted examples from this period that lack a "C" in the shape code, it is thought the bit may have been fitted later. The same letter was also struck as "complimentary" on pipes gifted to business partners and not offered for sale. These examples carry the wording NOT FOR SALE on the shank, and since no warranty period applies, the year code is often omitted.

The digit 6 at the start of the shape code, according to compilations, indicated a saddle-shaped bit: the same pot body was stamped "R" with a straight bit and "6R" with a saddle bit. It is reported that this convention was dropped in the early 1970s, and that in the four- and five-digit shape-number system settled on after 1976, the second digit from the left indicates the bit form.