Astleys of London Smooth Bent Pear Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates

Description

Astleys was one of London’s most historic pipe and tobacco shops. Like many pipe tobacconists, its owners had pipes made specially to be sold under the shop’s name. Astleys pipes, however, were made by some of the premier pipe manufacturers and artisans in the UK, such as Dunhill, Charatan, Les Wood, and Ken Barnes and Barry Jones of James Upshall. As a result, Astleys pipes are prized for their quality, and as examples of the very finest British pipes.

This Astleys is such an extraordinary shape that, I’ll admit, I struggled to think what to call it, or at least how to classify it within our system. The bowl is somewhat like an old clay tavern pipe, but I suppose the closest briar analog is the English-French pear. Like the pear, this pipe also has an oval shank, but unlike the traditional pear, this pipe features a long shank, an almost equally long stem, and a gentle quarter-bend from bowl to button. It’s a beautiful, very unique pipe, with masterful briar-work revealing bird’s-eye patterns on its sides, joined by cross-grain across its topside and base.

The condition is great. There’s some inner rim darkening, but the rest of the finish is unblemished, and the pipe’s ebonite stem is free of tooth abrasions.

 

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.74 / 18.79mm

Bowl Depth: 1.6″ / 40.64mm

Weight: 1.2oz / 36g