A Dunhill ES at Auction: Where the Listing and the Photo Disagree

A Dunhill ES at auction is a small case often cited to illustrate how far stamp reading can take a collector. John C. Loring examined a pipe listed at an online auction using nothing but the listing text and the photographs, and found a mismatch between what the shank writing claimed and what the bowl actually showed. According to the listing, the pipe was a 1923 ES, the long-shanked Canadian shape in the brand's lineup.

The Listing's Claim

The single marker that tied the listing to 1923 was a small digit — a half-height, underlined 3 — struck right after the inner-tube patent number. In the Dunhill stamp layout, this small digit is a year code, and 3 corresponds to 1923. The same face of the shank also carried the MADE IN ENGLAND inscription and the ES shape code, while the other face carried the DUNHILL-over-LONDON line and the H.W. handwork stamp. The seller described the bowl as a Bruyere billiard with an oval-section shank, gave measurements of roughly fifteen centimetres in length and about four and a half centimetres in bowl height, and noted that the stamps had faded from repeated polishing and that the metal inner tube was missing.