Pipe Brands
Askwith Pipes
A contemporary English pipe brand run by Chris Askwith, a silversmith by training, from his workshop in Plymouth, freely reinterpreting classic English shapes and using bog oak nearly as often as briar.
Askwith Pipes is a handmade pipe workshop run single-handedly by Chris Askwith in Plymouth, in southwest England. Producing since 2007, the brand is counted among the examples of the solo-maker workshops that regained strength in Britain in the late 2000s.
Shape Language
Askwith takes a flexible stance toward the shape tradition that dominates British pipemaking. Familiar patterns from the island school, such as the Billiard or the Bulldog, appear in the designs, but bowl height, shank thickness, and finish are usually shifted in measured ways. This approach is considered closer to the free interpretation of contemporary American makers than to English workshops. Sandblast and smooth polish are used in roughly equal measure across production.
The color choices on the mouthpieces are the brand's most quickly recognized trait. By the maker's own account, the vivid, even bold polyester colors were not a planned choice from the outset but the result of a broad color swatch that came into his hands as samples; over time it became the brand's signature.
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Source: Pipedia, adapted under the CC BY-SA licence.