The joys and dangers of Ebay pipes

[OC Richard]

Henderson-stamped pipes, no bids, $850 opening.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/16595264857...ndition=4%7C10

They appear to have narrow beads on the Catalin drone ferrules.

Hendersons with wide beads on Catalin or ivory ferrules are said to be superior.

[OC Richard]

Evidently both the Robertson pipes and the Piob Mhor lack hallmarks, thus are nickel-silver/German silver/cupro-nickel mounts. They're still nice hand-chased Dalman & Narborough work, but this will impact the final prices.

Here's a Lawrie set currently under $300. I'm huge Lawrie fan and the sets I've had like this had super stability and tone.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/17562620002...ndition=4%7C10

[Jock Scot]

Evidently both the Robertson pipes and the Piob Mhor lack hallmarks, thus are nickel-silver/German silver/cupro-nickel mounts. They're still nice hand-chased Dalman & Narborough work, but this will impact the final prices.

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Not necessarily, they still could be silver, but without the hallmarks they cannot be legally sold as silver in the Uk and you are right, that does affect the price quite considerably.

[OC Richard]

Not necessarily, they still could be silver, but without the hallmarks they cannot be legally sold as silver in the Uk and you are right, that does affect the price quite considerably.

The thing is, the mounts on both sets of pipes are clearly the work of Dalman & Narborough, who have supplied their distinctive hand-chased mounts to pipemakers for many years.

D&N have long made all of their various hand-chased patterns both in solid nickel-silver and in Sterling Silver, looking quite identical except that they diligently and fully hallmark their Sterling Silver, and leave their nickel-silver mounts with no marks whatever.

I messaged both sellers and they say that the mounts have no marks.

In the old days various pipemakers made hallmarked engraved Sterling Silver mounts in-house, but as far as I know the chased mounts always came from D&N.

In any case here are D&N hand-chased Sterling Silver mounts in their "Runic" pattern with repousse bosses. These are identical to the Robertson set currently on Ebay, though the seller says his set's mounts are unmarked.



(The firm was originally Frederick Narborough FN maker's mark but in the 1960s became Dalman & Narborough D&N mark.)

[OC Richard]

Did anyone see what price the Robertson ivory & FN-mounted closed at? Last I looked, a couple hours before close, it was a bit over $2000. I suspect that last-minute bidding would have put it over $3000.

Or the Piob Mhor D&N-mounted set? Last I looked it was a bit over $300, and I can't imagine it would have closed that low. The mounts looked plastic in the photos, which didn't however seem clear enough to see Schreger lines if those were present. I would guess that even with Piob Mhor not having a big reputation, a lovely Scottish-made African Blackwood set would go in the $700-900 range or more.

[JPS]

Did anyone see what price the Robertson ivory & FN-mounted closed at? Last I looked, a couple hours before close, it was a bit over $2000. I suspect that last-minute bidding would have put it over $3000.

Or the Piob Mhor D&N-mounted set? Last I looked it was a bit over $300, and I can't imagine it would have closed that low. The mounts looked plastic in the photos, which didn't however seem clear enough to see Schreger lines if those were present. I would guess that even with Piob Mhor not having a big reputation, a lovely Scottish-made African Blackwood set would go in the $700-900 range or more.

Over $3,000 is right. They closed at $4,610 + shipping! If you got it, use it, I guess.

[OC Richard]

Over $3,000 is right. They closed at $4,610 + shipping! If you got it, use it, I guess.

Wow.

For Sterling Silver that's a good price, however the seller told me he went over the mounts with a loupe and there were no stamps of any sort.

Which indicates Frederick Narborough solid nickel mounts, which are beautiful but not Silver.