Quote Originally Posted by GWBowman View Post
I have to admit I am not familiar with the relationship of James Upshall to Charatan.
Hi George,

I wish that I were a man of more brevity but the story doesn't tell without some background. I should write it all out one day with more details because it's a fascinating story that goes beyond pipes. I just found out that Suzanna (Kennedy's mom) is hale and hearty and 90. I have part of this story from her and I should go and visit her again and perhaps she can tell me more of the beginning.

Pete

Herman Lane signed over his property and possessions to his friend, Philipp, before leaving Nazi Germany in 1935. In 1938 Philipp succeeded his father as chairman of the tobacco giant, Reemtsma, and he remained in Germany during the war with his family.

After the war, Philipp’s daughter, Suzanna, met her future husband, Major Kenneth Barnes of the British occupation forces and Philipp met Herman in Switzerland to return to him his property that he’d (bravely) held during the war.

In the mid-1960s, after Major Barnes had retired from the army, Philipp asked Herman if he had a position for his son-in-law. Herman hired the Major as Managing Director of Charatan Pipes and he ran the company for some of their most prosperous years. He retired to open a small tobacco shop in Salisbury, Wiltshire.

Barry Jones, a Charatan master craftsman left in the late 1970s to turn piston rings for Rolls Royce (aircraft) engines in Wiltshire where he had a chance encounter with Major Barnes who convinced him to give a pipe making demonstration in the store. Soon they were making extra pipes to sell in the store and as demand increased they decided to open a workshop in 1978.

The new company was named after the town where it was located, Tilshead (pop ~360), between Salisbury and Devizes. Barry set-up and ran the workshop while Major Barnes used his connections to get the new brand, James Upshall, distribution and for supply of materials, especially briar from Otto Braun.

The mission of the new company was to make the finest quality English Freehand pipes, made with the best briar in the world. Only perfect, smooth bowls would bear the James Upshall name. A similar credo existed at Charatan in the pre-Lane (Reuben) era.

I met Major Barnes only once when I first saw the James Upshall pipes at the 1980 RTDA (trade show). They were inconsistent but showed great promise.

The Major’s son, Kennedy (Ken), was peripherally involved with the new company just as he’d been at Charatan during his father’s tenure there. When Major Barnes died in 1981, Ken decided to assume control of the young company.

For Ken and Barry, Charatan was the only manufacturing culture that they’d ever known. Barry had started at Charatan before the company had been sold to Herman Lane (1955). Ken wasn’t a craftsman and he had little business background but he threw himself, headlong, into the fray having Barry train him in the most difficult and skilled crafting position of the Cutter.

The Cutter’s job is to trim large blocks of briar into usable ebauchons of optimal shape and grain. In the case of Upshall, this involved holding the block in the hand and passing it against a large, open table saw. By 1985, Ken had not only mastered the craft but was, in my opinion, perhaps the best in the world at this difficult pursuit. For perspective, the best cutters that I’ve known were those at Barling (>60% smooth firsts), Upshall (55%) and Jacopo (40% but they make substantial amounts of sandblasts and carves that give them greater flexibility). All of them make mostly classic shapes. I don’t know of any current makers who can yield > 25%. The Cutter must recognize flaws and their patterns as well as envisioning the optimal shape contained in the block of briar. I always say that the proof is in the pipe and no company, ever, turned out the quantity of unflawed, smooth straight pipes like Upshall.

In April of 1982, I was in England and sought out Ken Barnes, meeting him for the first time at the Tilshead factory. Ironically, the other suitor to distribute the James Upshall pipes was Associated Imports who was located just two miles from us. Ken came to NY to decide and after seeing both of our operations, Associated far larger and more established and nascent Marble Arch, he chose us.

Ken eschewed sandblasting or any carving of bowls that had become a necessity of demand at Charatan when they’d became so successful under his father’s watch but all in all, James Upshall was the natural successor to Charatan. I coined the company’s motto, “The Tradition Continues…” because of this.

To finish, the hardest pipe to make is a flawless, smooth, classically defined bowl (especially the billiard family of shapes) with excellent grain. There’s no shortcut or crutch. Fancy shapes have latitude, billiards don’t. Once defined only the most skilled craftsmen can make these pipes on a regular basis. All Upshall pipes were made to this exacting standard. I’m proud to have played a part in the success that made Upshall the best selling handmade pipe in the world for the decade of the 1980s.