It is quite a rarity to see a nice old Charatan available for sale here, because I just tend to keep them all for myself. But with me actually putting a good effort into condensing my own collection, I just have to start parting with some of them.

Shape 461 is one of the most iconic Charatan catalog shapes. It is a beautiful straight, slanted Dublin of sorts.

Even though sandblasts were considered low grade for Charatan, you can see that they put the same amount of attention into the grain — you will find a wonderful mix of ring grain and straight grain.

Something very interesting about this pipe is the fact that we can date it to a tighter-than-usual range. Even though it is stamped with the Lane’s stamp, this is a Reuben’s Era pipe, easily identifiable by the tapered stem.

Lane made first contact with the family in 1950, and even though he bought the company in 1962, he was their exclusive distributor for the US from 1955. This is the year when US-market pipes officially started getting the Lane stamp.

With all that history aside, I want to point your attention to the dimensions and weight of the pipe, which are way more important to how a pipe smokes than any stamp. For quite a big pipe like this one, around Group 5 or bigger, the 37-gram weight feels almost impossibly lightweight in the hand.

Condition note: the stem is the original one and it is in practically perfect condition, but the “CP” logo was completely gone by the time I got the pipe. Those logo stamps were notoriously shallow.

The pipes go through one final check before shipping, so if you notice any inconsistencies in the carnauba finish or smudges they will be taken care of before your pipe is shipped to you.