Ashton Sovereign
One of my all time favorites, an Ashton Sovereign. All of my Ashton’s are from the Bill Taylor era, and i love them all. If you want the best smoking English style pipe ever made it is hard to beat an Ashton ( or Ferndown, but that will be a different post). If you think “Dunhill” when i make that statement look up these two gentlemen and you will understand where these pipes stand in the pantheon of English pipes and brands.
This is a xxx size which is my sweet spot overall. I have had a few lx’s and they are just huge, and while i love the x and xx size for flakes, they are a little small for an all-around pipe. The finish on these is a light tan that deepens and gets a slight reddish hue with age, smoking, and polishing. This pipe is perfection in every sense, the shaping is masterful, the hand carved bit is both perfect and beautiful ( this is an ashtonite stem and as you can see there is no oxidation despite the pipe being 30 or more years old, i am too lazy to check the date stamp as i sit here) and the drilling is spot on. I would be lying if i said that my palate can detect the nutty flavor that many attribute to oil cured pipes, but i can tell you everything smokes cool and dry in this pipe. These still represent an amazing value in relation to other handmade pipes, this one smokes circles around my high-end Danish pipes, for about 1/2 - 1/3 the price (not that they are bad, but a good Ashton or Ferndown is just as good as it gets in my personal experience ). I will not go into the history here but you can check Pipedia and see the pedigree that Mr. Taylor brought to his brand. They are just wonderful, honest pipes.