Astley's

Astley's is the shared name of a tobacconist's shop opened on London's Jermyn Street in 1862 and the pipes sold under that shop's name. The brand is an example of a business built on selection rather than production: Astley's never carved pipes in a workshop of its own at any point, but instead had the best English manufacturers of the day make pipes on its behalf. An Astley's pipe, then, is really a body made by another workshop that passed Astley's own standards.

The Shop and Its Address

The address was 109 Jermyn Street. From the second half of the nineteenth century onward, Jermyn Street was one of the streets where London's pipe and tobacco trade was concentrated; the Charatan shop also operated on the same street. The mix of goods in the window changed over time: in the shop's early period meerschaum pipes predominated, while in later years classically shaped briar pipes took the central place at the counter.

Records indicate the business was in the hands of the Bentley family from the 1930s onward. The shop closed at some later point; sources do not consistently agree on the exact closing date. The brand name was subsequently bought by Mordechai (Moty) Ezrati, who also owns the James Upshall brand.

Who Made the Pipes

The workshops making pipes on Astley's behalf changed from period to period. Up until the 1980s, a significant share of production came from Charatan. In later years James Upshall, Dunhill, and L&JS join this list, along with Bill Taylor, founder of the Ashton brand. It has also been suggested that Comoy's and GBD worked for the brand, but this claim rests only on secondary sources and is not considered confirmed.

This mode of production means pipes under the brand do not resemble one another. Two pipes carrying the same stamp may reflect different workshops' bore sizing, approach to bowl-wall thickness, and mouthpiece craftsmanship. For this reason, collectors assessing Astley's pipes look at construction traits before the stamp, trying to read which workshop the body might belong to.

Stamps

The known stamp form is the line "Astley's, 109 Jermyn St, London." Earlier examples show the wording "Wm Astley & Company, 109 Jermyn St S.W. London," and this is used for a rough period distinction. The brand's emblem is a stylized white "A" set into the mouthpiece. The brand's secondary line is recorded under the name Tudor Rose; there is no reliable information on which workshops made this series or to what standards.