Dating Ashton Pipes

[wojtekpastuch]

Hey guys!
I need some help with dating an Ashton pipe that the mailman has just delivered straight into my happy hands
It is a Sovereign LX with silver band on shank and silver rim. It is stamped on the left side "Ashton" below "SOVEREIGN" below to the left "LX" in an oval; on the right side it says "MADE IN" below "ENGLAND" with no date code.
Does anyone have an idea why there is no date code and how old is this pipe?

P.S. I love this pipe but it's pretty big for me, so I'll give it a try and smoke it a couple of times and in case I find it too big I might be willing to trade it for a nice dane of similiar value.

 

[daveinlax]

I can't say off the top of my head but I believe the style of the Ashton stamp and if the stem is vulcanite can be clues to dating Ashton pipes. :shock:

 

[hagley]

There was a brief period when Ashtons destined for the US market did not have date codes. David Field (formerly the US importer) asked Bill Taylor to stop stamping the code since some retailers complained that potential customers would shy away from pipes that carried a code from several years earlier. For example, if they saw a pipe in a shop in 1999 that had a date code from 1994, they were leary of buying it, thinking that something was wrong with the pipe if it had laid around unsold for 4 years.

I believe this was in the mid 1990s, and was just for a couple of years. Bill Taylor told me this one time when I visited his workshop.

Also it is possible that Bill just neglected to stamp the code.

I don't believe that the stem material allows one to date a pipe since Bill continued to use vulcanite after he introduced the Ashtonite material.

Unfortunately Les Wood does not stamp a year code on his silver and gold work, other than the metal work you will find on Dunhills.

I would just enjoy the pipe and not really concern myself about when it was made. With Bill's health at the moment, it may be awhile before the birth of any more Ashton pipes.

A Sovereign LX is rather hard to come by.

Mike Hagley

 

[wojtekpastuch]

Thanks for the answer!
I think I'm gonna keep the pipe I've smoked it twice now and I really enjoyed it, it's a great smoke. As I said, it's larger than what I usually smoke but given the high grade, the silver adornments and the generous size it will make a perfext "special occasion" pipe
Here's a pic of it:

 

[Mr_Houston]

wojtekpastuch;

Another consideration deals with the silver band. It is possible that the date code has been covered up by the band. Sometimes this is needed with the LX size, due to a crack at the end of the shank. Could be done at the factory, or afterwards. You may want to remove the stem and see if you can detect a crack.

I have one in similar condition. It smokes great and is very sturdy. I later found out that it had been fixed by a 3rd party.

However, no way to age it without the date code.

 

[wojtekpastuch]

Thanks for your suggestion! However it's not the case with my pipe since the date code should be after the word England which is written in the opposite direction from the band, and there is about a centimeter of free space from the band anyway. I carefully checked the shank for cracks and there aren't any so it seems that the band is original. As to the dating I read some posts on other forums and groups on the net and it seems that the date code is not always present, especially on the early Ashtons.
BTW it smokes great!