Astleys Smooth Cutty Estate Briar Pipe, English Estates

Description

Astleys was one of London’s most historic pipe and tobacco shops. Like many pipe tobacconists, its owners had pipes made specially to be sold under the shop’s name. Astleys pipes, however, were made by some of the premier pipe manufacturers and artisans in the UK, such as Dunhill, Charatan, Les Wood and Dolly Wood of Ferndown, and Ken Barnes and Barry Jones of James Upshall. As a result, Astleys pipes are prized for their quality, and as examples of the very finest British pipes.

We’ve had a fair few Astleys come through the estates pipeline—including a few new old stock pieces that came from the Bentley family and their successors—but this one might just be the most unique I’ve encountered. Funnily enough, one of MBSD Pipes’ affiliated artisans, J. Mouton, crafted something in a similar vein, independently of this, which he called a “modern tavern pipe.” There is something of the old clays, as well as the early clay-shape briars (the Belge, cutty, and so on) to this one’s design, but also something else to it. It has a certain similarity to post-war Danish pipes—not the wild and avant-garde designs of the 1960s onward, but the early, neo-traditional pipes of the individuals involved with the Suhr workshop. I’m reminded, for example, of the pipes of Poul Rasmussen himself, with their supple, slender frames and novel sense of proportion.

The condition is very good. Minor rim darkening, minor handling marks.

 

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.68 / 17.27mm

Bowl Depth: 1.59″ / 40.38mm

Weight: 0.7oz / 22g