Dunhill Limited Edition Namiki Two Carps

The collaboration between Dunhill and the Japanese company Namiki, a manufacturer of exclusive writing instruments, began as early as the 1920s. At that time, Europe was in the heyday of Art Deco with its elaborate design patterns: bold colours, lush ornaments and precious materials were very popular. Art déco was not so much an art movement, but rather a style-defining one in the fields of architecture and design. Numerous pieces of furniture and other everyday objects from this era have now achieved the status of classics.

Always on the lookout for new kinds of inspiration, Art Deco also took up Far Eastern elements. And so Namiki, following the traditional Japanese craft of Asian lacquer art, also colloquially known as Chinese lacquer in this country, occasionally decorated pipes from the house of Dunhill. In the meantime, Namiki pipes appear at regular intervals and have become highly sought-after collector's items.

A new example in this series is the White Spot Namiki Pipe Two Carp. It shows the extremely detailed image of two koi, a typical motif of Japanese art, which was created using the centuries-old "Maki-e" technique. First, a pattern of urushi, a lacquer made from the resin of the Chinese lacquer tree, is drawn on the briar pipe bowl. Now gold dust, gold flakes and shell mother-of-pearl are applied to the still wet lacquer. In painstaking manual work that takes months, the artist applies layer after layer, one by one, so that finally a highly filigree, relief-like surface emerges.

The upper koi is depicted using the so-called rankaku technique: For this, a mosaic of the finest fragments of quail egg shells is first artfully assembled, then lacquered and finally polished so that the motif stands out. Thanks to its finely shining vermilion, the lower fish appears to be distinctly deep and richly detailed. The water around the two fish is coloured by reflective shell mother-of-pearl.

The unique pipe forms a masterpiece of Japanese craftsmanship. The artist Yutaka Sato was busy for half a year with the execution of this incredibly demanding task. By the way, not only the bowl is remarkable, but also the ring made of 18-carat gold expresses the style of this unique pipe. In total, no more than 25 copies of the White Spot Namiki Pipe Two Carp were made, of which "No. 1" remained in Dunhill's own archive. This makes the pipe not only a special jewel in any collection, but also a capital investment that retains its value. At Cigarworld, you will receive specimen no. 14 exclusively.

The White Spot Namiki Pipe Two Carp comes in a high-quality gift box made of lacquered wood. In addition to the noble pipe, it contains a handmade tamper made of black vulcanite and, in a pull-out drawer, the large-format, opulently designed illustrated book "Namiki - The Poignant Beauty of Fragile Things" by Jean-François Canton with a hand signature of the author.