Ross Arundel

Ross Arundel is the brand under which Peter Ross, a tobacconist in a small town near England's south coast, sold pipes under his own name. It is not a factory but a retailer's brand: the bodies were made in other workshops, stamped with Ross's name, and delivered to customers by mail. Pipes bearing the same stamp therefore show noticeable differences in workmanship and shape language.

Peter Ross and the Mail-Order Scheme

According to accounts, in the years following the Second World War Peter Ross left his job in London and settled in Arundel, about eighty kilometers to the south. This West Sussex market town, known for its castle and cathedral, is a small settlement. Ross opened a tobacconist's shop there and prepared his own blends.

Sales moved to mail order by the mid-1950s. Ross first advertised in local newspapers, then in nationally distributed magazines; rural readers who could not easily reach a good tobacconist were the natural buyers of this arrangement. Pipes and cigars gradually joined the blends. A 1960 advertisement states that the bodies were made at an unnamed well-known London workshop; the same advertisement emphasizes that the pipes were unstained and unvarnished. This untreated surface is the brand's most consistent distinguishing feature.