Square Stamp and Grading on Pre-War Dunhill Bruyere DRs

Pre-war Dunhill Bruyere DRs are pipes carrying the DR stamp that Dunhill applied to straight-grain bodies in the period stretching from the 1910s to the early 1930s. On nearly all of these examples, a small, square-shaped mark appears around the shank writing. What this mark meant remained unclear for a long time; once position data compiled from collections was set alongside the era's catalog grading tiers, the idea arose that the square could be tied to a grading scheme.

The Years When Bruyere Was the Only Option

Alfred Dunhill's tobacco shop opened in 1907 on Duke Street in London's St James's district; the brand is accepted as having begun making its own pipes in 1910. Until the light-colored Root finish was introduced in the early 1930s, Dunhill's only smooth-surfaced finish was Bruyere. For this reason all pre-war DRs are Bruyere-finished; in later generations, the finish that comes to mind with DR will instead be Root. The shank writing reads DUNHILL over DUKE ST SW on the very earliest examples, and DUNHILL over LONDON in later years. For the stamp itself and the selection criteria behind it, see the Dunhill Dead Root entry.

According to the record, the distinction between the two finishes was not just about color. Bruyere bowls were turned, until the 1960s, from hard Calabrian briar, which, though considered well-figured, was not especially suited to straight grain; the Root finish, on the other hand, relied on Corsican briar, more inclined to yield straight grain. The same account states that the source regions changed in the 1960s, with the emphasis shifting to Greek briar. That early smooth-surfaced Dunhills lag behind later ones in grain is mostly explained by this distinction.