Irish Estates: Peterson Ashford (606) (Fishtail) (2014) (Replacement Stem) Tobacco Pipe

Peterson's "606" is a straight Pot in typical Irish style, exemplifying the company's penchant for robust shanks and hearty proportions, while the thick insulating walls exude plenty of muscularity on their own. With a wide tobacco chamber, broad bowl dimensions, and a transition that emphasizes the shape of the bowl with subtle cheeking, it completes a unified composition that's full of stout substance and an impressive in-hand feel.

Named after Ashford Castle, a 13th-century edifice in western Ireland later upgraded in the Victorian era (and now a five-star, luxury hotel), Peterson's Ashford series dresses pipes in a smooth, dark walnut stain and pairs them with a cumberland-hued acrylic stem to match. Contrasting the smoky color palette, a sterling silver mount adds further elegance and bespeaks Peterson's renowned silverwork — each Sallynoggin smith having spent years of mentorship under the factory's senior craftsmen. The Ashford presents a more rustic version of the black-and-silver dress pipe motif while still retaining a strong sense of formal class, and as an added factoid, Ashford Castle was a prominent filming site for John Ford's Academy Award winning The Quiet Man in 1952 — a bit of trivia for John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara aficionados.