Ashton 1989 Pebble Grain XXX Sandblasted Billiard Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates

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.

The “Pebble Grain” was Bill Taylor’s answer to Dunhill’s Shell Briar. Just like the early Dunhill Shell Briar, Ashton pipes were, before being finished, oil cured using a patented method of Taylor’s own invention. This allowed for several things, notably among them being the exceptional receptivity of the briar to sandblasting, resulting in the kinds of deep, ring grain sandblasts seen on this fine specimen. Made in 1989, in Ashton’s first decade, the pipe is a relatively rare example of a mixed finish Pebble Grain, with its rim left smooth and showing off a wealth of bird’s-eye. Altogether it makes for an especially satisfying pipe, perhaps most of all for collectors of high-grade English briars.

The condition is very good. Very minor inner rim darkening, slight finish fading, and slightly over-buffed stem.

 

Details:

Length: 6.8″ / 172.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.81 / 20.57mm

Bowl Depth: 1.73″ / 43.94mm

Weight: 2.1oz / 62g