Opened on July 7th 1907 in London’s fashionable St. James’s district, Alfred Dunhill created a legacy that endures to this day.

Originally conceptualised as an exclusive specialist tobacconist and pipe shop in 31A Duke Street, its proximity to the clubs of St. James’s and Pall Mall helped to ensure instant success and a loyal and distinguished customer base. The “dunhill’s” shop on Duke Street quickly gained a reputation for custom tobacco blends, the best pipes money could buy and an unsurpassed customer service.

In the coming years, the shop would be enlarged to the premises on 30 and 31 Duke street and today the store still occupies the same space, although the building had been re-erected in the 1950’s (after the original building was almost completely destroyed by two German landmines during the WWII) and the entrance has now moved around the corner to 48 Jermyn Street.

The success of this store was so great that in the mid 1920’s, more than 260,000 Dunill pipes were sold over the counter, its profit financing the expansion of the White Spot brand in terms of product offering and internationally.

The famous White Spot pipes are till this day a cherished element of the product offering and an even more so important part of the heritage of the brand.

THE TWO LIMITED EDITION PIPES
‘THE CENTENARY OF
THE DUKE STREET SHOP
1907 - 2007’

Specially manufactured to celebrate the 100 years of the Duke Street Shop, these limited edition pipes are re-editions of the first pipe invented and patented by Alfred Dunhill already in 1904.

‘Dunhill’s Patent Shield pipes’, as introduced in early advertisements, featured a shield as a slight extension of the front part of the briar bowl, preventing “… all inconvenience and danger of flying sparks or ash to the smoker and others when travelling on buses, tramcars, motor-cars, cycles, boats, &c.” and were considered to be “Invaluable in the house, …, the shield preventing the ash from dropping on the carpet, the billiard table, or the card table.”

For this edition, we chose the extremely rare Bulldog Windshield version, which has not been manufactured for over 30 years.

Fitted with a solid 10mm Sterling Silver band engraved with “1907 - 2007”, the special stamping on the stem of the pipe refers to Duke Street S.W. – ‘S.W’ standing for the shop’s location in London’s South-West.

The packaging is a beautiful leather-bound book, incorporating an image of the original Duke Street shop front.

Both editions are strictly limited to 100 pieces in Bruyere finish and 100 pieces in Shell Briar finish, of which the edition numbers ‘1’ will be kept in the Dunhill archive, thus only 99 pieces of each version will come into sale.

Furthermore, each pipe is accompanied by the hardcover book ‘Our Family Business’ by Mary Dunhill, the daughter of Alfred Dunhill and chairman of the Dunhill group of companies from 1961 until 1975.

Each pipe is complemented by its own unique numbered and hand-signed certificate.

 

 pipe details approx.

A	3,8 cm	1.50 inch
B	4,8 cm	1.89 inch
C	14,0 cm	5.51 inch
D	2,0 cm	0.79 inch
E	2,9 cm	1.14 inch
Weight	36 gramm	36 gram