Ashton 1999 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 one, from the first decade of Ashton pipes and, as such, the make’s ascent under Bill Taylor, is one of the closest I’ve yet seen to the “Platonic form” of an early patent Dunhill. The sandblasting is so thorough and rich in texture that I’m left to wonder precisely how many times its stummel went through the blasting cabinet. In addition to this deep relief, the patterns it implicates are arranged in good, consistent layers of ring grain—which Taylor, as is well known, was a master at drawing out of the briar.

The condition is fair. Some rim darkening and finish fading, and a small tooth indent on the button.

Details:

Length: 5.9″ / 149.8mm

Bowl Width: 0.81 / 22.57mm

Bowl Depth: 1.58″ / 40.13mm

Weight: 1.6oz / 46g