Old Church Billiard with Silver (XX) (2026) Tobacco Pipe

William "Bill" Ashton-Taylor spent his working life around pipes, starting as a lathe operator with Dunhill at the age of 15 in 1959. He struck out on his own with the Ashton brand, spinning its first pipe in 1983. Bill took immense pride in the process of making Ashton pipes. He traveled to Italy twice a year to buy wood, steeped his turned bowls in a blend of oils before heating them to draw out unwanted sap, and even garnered a British patent for his unique manufacturing process that produced pipes that were much lighter than their competitors. Bill died in 2009, but the Ashton process lives on through disciple Jimmy Craig.

This Billiard is dressed in Ashton's sandblasted Old Church finish, which gives the stummel a natural coloring of pale brown. The sandblast gives a nice texture to the cross grain and birdseye of the bowl, which tapers lightly from heel to rim while still maintaining a handsome, traditional silhouette for a Billiard. A thick silver accent caps the stummel before yielding to the black vulcanite of the tapered stem. As Anglo-French designs go, it's a straightforward but still quite attractive piece, and a light one at that — just over one ounce.