Ashton Pebble Grain LX Sandblasted Panel Billiard Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

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. 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 paired with another Taylor patent, Ashtonite, a unique compound of ebonite and acrylic that remained relatively soft and comfortable (like ebonite) while being more resistant to oxidation (like acrylic).
One thing Taylor et al. did do regarding a more radical break with Dunhill was to increase the general size of their pipes. This LX panel, for example, is a full two steps below the workshop’s largest pipes (EXL and Magnum), yet still dwarf’s the majority of Dunhill’s output, even its OD 836 shape.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating.

 

Details:

Length: 7.2″ / 182.8mm

Bowl Width: 0.78 / 19.81mm

Bowl Depth: 1.73″ / 43.94mm

Weight: 2.8oz / 80g