Ascot Nature 05 Paneled Straight Estate Pipe - Stamp: Ascot - Vulcanite Fishtail Stem, 9mm Filter

Five panels, cut with curved rather than sharp transitions, read to the eye like eight. That is the geometry on this bowl, and it is the first thing a collector notices before ever turning the pipe over to check the shank.

The shank carries Stamp: Ascot, with NATURE 05 stamped beneath it. This is a straight pipe: paneled bowl, straight shank, straight tapered vulcanite stem with a fishtail slot at the button, bored for a 9mm filter.

Faceting a round bowl blank into panels is slower and less forgiving than turning a smooth round shape on a lathe. Each flat has to be cut and sanded to the same depth and angle as its neighbors, or the panels will not sit level with each other under raking light. Here the transitions between the flats are rounded rather than knife-edged - the curve softens what would otherwise be a hard octagonal profile, which is why five true panels can read as eight when the light catches the curved seams between them. That is a different approach from the crisp, right-angled paneling seen on shapes where the facet edges are left sharp and unblended.

The stem carries the same paneling down its length, tapering from the shank face to a fishtail button - a slot cut into two prongs at the bit rather than a single round bore. A fishtail bit spreads the smoke path across a wider, flatter opening at the tip, which many smokers find sits more comfortably between the teeth than a round button of the same bore. The stem material is vulcanite, hard rubber that takes a high polish but is more prone than acrylic to sulfur bloom and oxidation with age and UV exposure - worth a light buff now and then to keep the black true.

The bowl is bored for a 9mm filter, one of the two common filter formats used on pipes made for filtered smoking. A 9mm filter sits in a chamber cut into the shank between the tobacco chamber and the stem, and it changes the draw: some smokers find it dries the smoke and reduces tongue bite, others pull the filter and smoke the pipe open-bore once broken in. Either way is legitimate, and the bore accepts any standard 9mm filter.

At 37mm across the bowl and 40mm deep in the chamber, this is a full-size smoking bowl, not a small or demonstrator size - enough tobacco for a long sitting. A bowl height of 50mm over a 150mm overall length puts the proportions toward the taller end for a straight pipe of this length, which shifts more of the mass into the bowl than into the shank and stem, something to feel for when the pipe is held rather than just measured.

The finish is smooth - no sandblast or rustication - which on a paneled bowl leaves the flats and their transitions fully exposed to view; there is no textured surface to disguise a facet that runs slightly uneven. Finish and grain: see the photographs.

Condition: the pipe has been smoked previously and presents in good condition overall. A small stain is visible on the briar, with faint scratches around the bowl.

THE MARKS
- Stamp: Ascot (shank)
- NATURE 05 (stamped beneath the maker's name)

THE MEASUREMENTS
Length 150mm (5.8") - Bowl height 50mm (2.0") - Bowl width 37mm (1.5") - Chamber depth 40mm (1.6") - Chamber diameter 20mm (0.8") - Weight 1.95 oz - 9mm filter

Ships from the Faridunhill / Pipe Collectors Encyclopedia archive. Worldwide shipping and professional sanitation on every estate pipe.

SKU: 149