Mencyclopaedia: dunhill - Telegraph The uncapitalised master of capital manly paraphernalia. More even than George Osborne's persecuted pasty, tobacco is now a pariah pleasure. Yet before medical evidence granted licence for taxman and purse-lipped puritan alike to heap censure upon the smoker, one of the many things tobacco's stimulating properties sparked was Britain's most beautiful blokey brand: dunhill. That lower case "d" on dunhill is not (for once) my typo: due to a split trademark, capital "D" Dunhill belongs to British American Tobacco, which sells cigarettes under that name. Uncapitalised dunhill - proper dunhill - which trades as Alfred Dunhill Ltd, is now famed for making lustrously luxurious men's clothes, accessories, and trinkets. To the few remaining richly scented cognoscenti, it is also revered for its White Spot pipes. These gleaming briar-root beauties are still produced and can cost several thousand pounds, yet these days go unmentioned in the company's glossy campaigns. This is rather a shame, for pipes were vital to Dunhill's growth. Mencyclopaedia: Gant When Alfred Dunhill, aged 15, inherited his father's Euston Road harness-making business in 1888, he quickly decided to spurn the horse. "Dunhill Motorities," as he rebranded the business, made every possible accessory for the motorist, including wonderful leather driving coats. A serial entrepreneur, he dabbled in musical instruments and photography as businesses, and opened a small tobacconist's on Duke Street in London in 1907. By the late 1920s, when he retired, Dunhill's custom tobacco mixes and pipes had earned it expansion to New York, Toronto and Paris. When holidaying from cigars, Churchill puffed White Spot pipes (he is said to have decorated the delivery man who supplied his Dunhill tobacco mix during the Blitz), and this marvellous picture (above right) shows the founder's son - also Alfred - open for business the morning after Duke Street was levelled by a Luftwaffe bomb. In 1954 Dunhill (still then capitalised) introduced the still-peerless Rollagas lighter. Yet not all early goods were wreathed in fumes. Those "motorities" apart, Alfred introduced Namiki - an exquisitely detailed Japanese school of lacquer decoration - on pens that still sell (at breathtaking prices) today. Left to right: Blazer, £1,079, Satchel, £1,400, Pen, £67,000, all by Dunhill. By the 1970s, the company started diversifying into clothes and other luxury goods. Now part of the South African-owned Richemont group (which includes Cartier), dunhill's 21st-century emphasis is set squarely upon providing men with everything they could wish for. Trio of male Olympians star as the new faces of Dunhill Its cashmere knitwear is particularly fine and hard-wearing, while its suits are pared down and slick. Its blazers, in cashmere (£1,295) and crease-resistant cambedoo (£950), are all the blazer one could ever desire. Accessories include a carbon-fibre wallet that opens only at the touch of its owner's fingerprint (£600), motoring-themed cufflinks (£110 and up), beautiful shoes and money-cases in Cordovan leather, and a small selection of watches with Richemont-owned Swiss movements (the £3,600 "classic" is a keeper). Refreshingly for a 21st-century luxury marque, dunhill only produces items designed for men. And the tobacco-stained heritage I suspect it feels slightly ambivalent towards none the less makes it enormously recognisable. In chain-smoking China, dunhill is ranked second only to Louis Vuitton as the brand most desired by the country's new rich. This month in Shanghai it held a hi-tech fashion show named "Trafalgar" that topped the most-watched chart on China's Twitter equivalent, Weibo. The entrepreneurial Alfreds - probably both puffing contentedly on a White Spot - would surely have approved. Need to know Best for: Swanky - sometimes slightly hitman-ish - accessories and near-perfect basics. Try the white poplin shirt (£95) Also notable: The company has four clubs - called Alfred's - in Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong and at the Duke of Westminster's former house in Mayfair. Get it at: dunhill.com for online browsing and shop information