Ashton 1986 Pebble Grain XXX Sandblasted Billiard Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates

Description

Ashton is an English pipe brand, one originally created by William Ashton Taylor. Taylor worked at Dunhill from an early age, becoming one of the company’s most accomplished pipe makers. But Taylor was also one of a number of craftsmen and women who who left Dunhill in the 1970s and 1980s, hoping to create something of their own. After experimenting with a couple of different projects, Taylor ultimately founded Ashton, a workshop for high-end, handmade pipes staffed by himself and other industry veterans like Frank Lincoln and Sid Cooper. Later, Taylor’s team were joined by another Dunhill alumnus, Jimmy Craig, who would take over the running of the workshop after Taylor’s sudden passing in 2009. Along with other workshops, such as Ferndown and James Upshall, Ashton would play a decisive role in the emergence of a new English high-grades scene in the late 20th century and beyond.

The “Pebble Grain” was Bill Taylor’s answer to Dunhill’s Shell Briar. This would already be easily deduced from its craggy, dark burgundy sandblast, but there’s another connection that brought the two finishes together. Like the early Dunhill Shell Briar, Ashton pipes were, before being finished, oil cured using a patented method of Taylor’s own invention. This was crucial for achieving the kinds of craggy sandblasts that early Dunhill pipes were known for, and which Ashton pipes revived.

This particular Pebble Grain was crafted just 3 or so years after the launch of the Ashton make, and already captures exactly the kind of finishing that Ashton pipes would become famous for. “Craggy” would be an understatement; taking the form of a large billiard rendition, both the bowl and the shank are strewn with the heaps and craters of a thoroughly applied blasting, resulting in a texture that is certainly reminiscent of the early Shell Briar, but perhaps more so the no man’s land just across the English Channel around the time old Alfred came up with it.

The condition is good. Some finish fading, handling marks, and stem slightly over-buffed at its base.

Details:

Length: 6.2″ / 157.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.84 / 21.33mm

Bowl Depth: 1.76″ / 44.70mm

Weight: 1.9oz / 56g