Mountbatten

Mountbatten is a pipe brand associated with the Charatan workshop in London. Today it appears only in the secondhand market, mostly as examples that have undergone repair. No separate founding or closing date has been recorded for the brand; nearly everything known about it has been gathered from the marks on surviving pipes and from collector correspondence.

Charatan's Secondary Names

It was common practice in the English pipe industry for large workshops to release output falling outside their main lines under other names. Charatan is among the firms that resorted to this; Ben Wade, whose English rights it took over, is one of the brands serving this function. Mountbatten has long been placed in the same category, under the heading "Charatan's second quality."

As the term has settled into the community's usage, a second quality is a pipe that, carrying some flaw in material or workmanship, cannot bear the main brand's name. That such flaws are not regularly seen on Mountbatten-marked bowls is the starting point of the objection that this definition does not fit the brand well.