What makes it cool is it was made in France during the 1930's. A small batch of them found their way to NYC in the early 1950's that were dimensionally identical to the ultra rare & expensive Dunhill LC. (today, nice specimens of those fetch $1500 to $2200) All the Dunnie experts are reasonably certain that the bowls which found their way to the US are ones that Dunhill passed on. That they "cherry picked" the French factory's output, but the rejects weren't thrown away.
The airway in the shank is curved, by the way, which is why they're comfortably certain that they aren't knock-offs, but the real deal. Few factories then (or today, for that matter) have ever figured out how to do that.
Anyhow, it was structurally sound, but otherwise a gunky & stunk up mess. The shank face was also off-square. (I hate it when that happens
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
To keep things authentic, I patterned the new stem's contour and profile off a 1924 shape 120 from my own collection, and matched the honey/walnut finish with a 1930's-era Root Briar I also had laying around.
Result? The stummel's owner now has a "back door" LC in effectively new condition for the price of a mid-line Peterson. Plus, a helluva story to go with it.
![Mr. Green :mrgreen:](./images/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif)
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