Bill Taylor Ashton Old Church XXX Sandblast Saddle Billiard Estate Briar Pipe

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.

For those not in the know, Ashton pipes are typically dated by a number suffixed to their ‘Made in England’ stamp. While Ashton was founded in 1983, these numbers were originally backdated to 1980, with ‘Made in England 3’ indicating a 1983 make, up to ’29 for 2009, the year Bill Taylor sadly passed. After this, Taylor’s protege Jimmy Craig began using three digits, starting at 210 (for 2010). There are, however, Ashton pipes that do not have date numbers – so how are we to date these ones? The story goes that, when Ashton began exporting its pipes to the United States in the early 1990s, tobacconists preferred that pipes did not have a date stamp, because they worried that, if the pipe didn’t sell for a while, no customer would want an ‘old pipe.’ This is quite ironic, because these days, collectors prize pipes from that era. This was a time when Bill Taylor was the principal carver of Ashton pipes, and was in his prime. This pipe, from that early 1990s period, is a testament to that. It is an example of Ashton’s ‘Oldchurch’ line, a sandblasted, lightly stained answer to Dunhill’s Tanshell. The pipe shows off Bill Taylor’s renowned, deep and craggy ring grain sandblasting, which should prick the ears of collectors of these Great British pipes.

The condition is excellent. There is some minor darkening on the inner back lip of the rim, and the pipe – as Oldchurches and Tanshells – has begun to develop a warm patina over time, but neither of these should be a problem for admirers of Taylor’s work.

 

Details:

Length: 5.6″ / 142.2mm

Bowl Width: 0.81 / 20.57mm

Bowl Depth: 1.7″ / 43.18mm

Weight: 1.7oz / 50g