Dating Dunhill Before the Year Code (1907-1921)

Dating Dunhill before the year code is the task of placing pipes made before 1921 — the year the brand began striking a small year digit on the shank — into their proper period. In this era, no single mark gives the year; the city line, the patent number, the finish name, and the arrangement of the lettering are read together.

The result is often not a single year but a range of two or three. The year 1921, when the use of the year digit began, and the period after it, are covered in a separate entry.

Stages of Production

Alfred Dunhill opened a small tobacconist's shop on Duke Street in the St James's district in 1907. In the early years all the pipes on the counter were commissioned from other workshops; on these examples the shape numbers reportedly stayed between 1 and 30. Starting in 1910, part of production passed into the brand's own hands, but the bowls continued to be turned in France for a long time. It was not until 1920 that the final stage of pipe-making was also brought to London. This is why it is misleading to call a pipe from 1910-1919 simply "English-made": the bowl was shaped in France and the pipe finished in London.

Two markers from the transitional period give further dating help. The white dot on the mouthpiece was first seen as a brand mark in 1912; some compilations place the date at 1915 and explain the dot as a mark showing which face of the mouthpiece should sit on top. Because the two accounts do not agree, the white dot alone is not considered a firm boundary. The sandblasted Shell finish was added in 1917; that same year, briar sourced from Calabria is reported to have come into limited use.