Ashton Pebble Grain 19 XX, Sandblasted Panel Estate Briar Pipe [SOLD OUT]

Description

Ashton is an English pipe brand created by William Ashton Taylor, a former Dunhill pipe-maker who left Dunhill in the 1980s to make pipes under his own name. Along with other pipe-makers such as Ken Barnes and Barry Jones of James Upshall and Les Wood of Ferndown, Ashton emerged as part of a new wave of high end, hand made British pipes in the late 20th century.

Among Ashton smokers and collectors, there is a general sentiment that pipes made by Bill Ashton Taylor himself were some of the best hand made English pipes money could buy. This is not to say that his former apprentice and later successor, Jimmy Craig, is a bad pipe-maker by any means (I have Craig pipes myself, and they’re excellent), but some do prefer Bill’s typically craggier, deeper sandblasting, along with his superlative stem-work. Taylor-made pipes were produced between 1983 and around 2009, when Bill sadly died, and can be identified by their date codes after the ‘Made in England’ nomenclature: 3-29 being 1983-2009, and 210 onwards for 2010 to the present. This pipe is from 1999, as stated by the ’19’ code, though Ashton enthusiasts could probably spot Bill’s signature ring-grain sandblasting from a mile off. The shape is a lovely paneled bent billiard in the Pebble Grain ruby-red blast finish, with a jet black Ashtonite (Ashton’s proprietary ebonite resin). It’s a lovely pipe, and one I was quite tempted to keep for myself, I will admit.

The condition is excellent. The bowl has some handling marks, but they’re barely visible against the deep-red finish, and the crispness of the sandblasting has not been disturbed. A true English gem.

 

Details:

Length: 5.5″

Bowl Width: 21.5mm

Bowl Depth: 1.6″

Weight: 1.5oz / 44g