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The shank carries two words and a number: \"Piccadilly 78.\" Nothing else identifies the maker.
Piccadilly 78 is a sandblast bent billiard fitted with a vulcanite tapered stem and a P-lip mouthpiece, no filter.
Bowl: briar
Stem: vulcanite
Mouthpiece: P-lip
Filter: none
Stamped: \"Piccadilly 78\"
No verified history exists for this maker in our records, so none is offered here. What can be said with confidence concerns the pipe itself: its shape, its finish, and the mechanics of how it draws and holds heat.
The billiard is the oldest and most standardized shape in pipe making - a cylindrical bowl set at a right angle to a straight or gently curved shank, the benchmark against which most other shapes are measured. This example is bent rather than straight, the shank and stem curving downward from the bowl so the pipe rides lower in the hand and the stem meets the mouth at a shallower angle. A bent billiard is read and gripped the same way a straight one is; the difference is in how it sits between the teeth and how the weight balances when it is clenched rather than held.
The finish is a full sandblast. Sandblasting removes the softer growth rings of the briar and leaves the harder summer growth standing in relief, so the surface is not merely textured but topographical - it follows the grain wherever the grain actually runs, ring by ring, rather than imposing a pattern on top of it. That is why no two sandblasts are identical even from the same briar block, and why the blast is often chosen for wood whose grain is not striking enough on its own to carry a smooth finish.
Finish and grain: see the photographs.
The mouthpiece is a P-lip: the airway exits through the top of the button rather than straight out the end, directing the smoke stream upward against the roof of the mouth instead of across the tongue. The mechanism is straightforward and has been fitted by many makers across many decades; what matters to the smoker is the different way it delivers smoke, not which shop first cut it. The stem itself is vulcanite - hardened, sulfur-cured rubber, the material of choice for pipe stems through most of the twentieth century, valued for a comfortable bite and for taking a polish back to deep black after oxidation dulls it. Vulcanite does oxidize with age and UV exposure, turning brown or greenish if neglected; whether that has happened here is a matter for the photographs and the condition note below.
This pipe carries no filter. The draw runs from the tobacco chamber through an open bore to the button with nothing interrupting it - a fuller, more direct draw than a filtered pipe gives.
THE MARKS
- Stamped \"Piccadilly 78\" on the shank - the only marking present
THE MEASUREMENTS
Length 143mm (5.6\") - bowl height 47mm (1.9\") - bowl width 36mm (1.4\") - chamber diameter 20mm (0.8\") - chamber depth 42mm (1.7\") - weight 50g (1.8oz)
This pipe has been smoked. The seller grades its condition as very good. No cracks, chips, fills or repairs are reported.
Ships from the Faridunhill / Pipe Collectors Encyclopedia archive. Worldwide shipping and professional sanitation on every estate pipe.
SKU: 024
