Parker

Parker is the pipe brand of Parker Pipe Co Limited, which Alfred Dunhill had set up in London in 1922. Its origin was not a craft decision but an accounting one: bowls that failed to meet Dunhill's own standards in the workshop would from then on be finished and marketed under a separate name.

Before this arrangement, rejected pipes were sold off at a discount, marked either with a large "X" stamped over the Dunhill mark or with "Damaged Price" printed directly on the wood.

The Limits of the Dunhill Connection

Treating Parker as a "flawed Dunhill" understates the distance between the two brands. The rejection decision was usually made right after the bowl was turned; that is, the block parted ways before it ever entered the long sequence of firing, curing, carving, stem work, and final finishing reserved for pipes destined to become Dunhills. The practical result is this: the overwhelming majority of pipes issued under the Parker name never went through the lengthy process that makes a Dunhill a Dunhill. Although the factory's stamp ledgers document that the two names ran under the same roof throughout the 1950s, this does not amount to product identity. John C. Loring writes that some prewar and 1950s examples give the impression of having been rejected at the finishing stage; he adds, however, that the briar used did not come solely from Dunhill stocks, and that there is no way to trace a block's source by looking at the pipe. There is also no trace of Parker ever appearing in Dunhill catalogs or on Dunhill store shelves.