Ashton: Brindle Bent Dublin (XXX) Tobacco Pipe

William Ashton-Taylor began his pipe-making studies at a mere fifteen years of age as an assistant in Dunhill's workshop. He demonstrated great interest in and talent for the craft, which led him to move up through the ranks before he eventually left to start his own company, Ashton, in 1983. With this pipe, Ashton has slightly modified some of the traditional characteristics of a bent Dublin to make a pipe that is still thoroughly English in style while possessing a touch of uniqueness. The features that set this pipe apart from the rank and file Anglo-French bent Dublin are its angled rim and elliptical shank. The fore rim of the bowl is noticeably taller than the aft. Combined with the bowl's forward cant and the cross grain flowing across the front and back of the bowl, the slant created by this difference in height creates a forward-urging energy. Normally, an elliptical shank means that the shank is on the shorter side and, by being so, accentuates the bowl's height. But when viewing this pipe from its side, the shank looks to be of an average, proportional height. Look at it from an aerial perspective, though, and it becomes clear that the shank is wider than the average Dublin's would be, which makes for a wider stem. For its size, this pipe is rather lightweight, and the thin bit's chaste bend makes for a comfortable jaw-hanging posture. The pipe pairs a sandblasted stummel dressed in an earthy reddish-brown stain to the series' signature brindled stem.