Where it comes from
The bulldog is an English factory shape from the last decades of the nineteenth century. The diamond shank and the pair of bead lines around a tapered bowl were meant to look sturdy — the dog’s name is the joke. Dunhill, BBB and the Saint-Claude exporters put it on every list. It is not a Rhodesian (that shape keeps the beads and takes a round shank). It is not a billiard with decoration. The diamond is structural in the drawing, even when the drilling is still a round airway.
The specification
Bowl: tapers toward the rim; two bead or ridge lines around the waist. Shank: diamond in section. Stem: usually a saddle or a taper cut to the diamond. Three measured Asikyan bulldogs: 381/23 is 155 mm, 53 g, chamber 20 × 39 mm, bowl 44 × 52 mm outside, smooth, in stock when listed. 426/24 is 140 mm, 66 g, chamber 20 × 34 mm, bowl 48 × 52 mm, a fuller smooth bowl. 432/24 is 136 mm, 62 g, chamber 20 × 36 mm, bowl 47 × 50 mm, partial rustication, Cumberland stem, boxwood ring. Those numbers are from the pieces.
How they differ on the bench
381/23 is the slender reading. 426/24 is the generous bowl. 432/24 is the mixed surface. All three keep the beads and the diamond. If you want the same ridge on a round shank, that is the Rhodesian.
