I clipped this little bit of info from the Upshall website where they often sell Astley branded pipes...
Astley’s of Jermyn Street opened their prestigious shop way back in 1860 as an outlet for their superb manufacturing of smoking pipes for the British royalty and London gentry alike. At that time they were literally just down the road from the Charatan’s shop, and for years they competed to produce a better standard of pipe. Whilst Charatan changed hands and was sold to Lane in the U.S., Astley’s continued with his High Grade pipe sales by supplying some of the best examples of British manufacturing to pipe connoisseurs around the world! Astley of Jermyn Street was an extremely exclusive and renowned shop and many pipe smokers made visiting the shop a must when arriving in London. The shop always commanded extremely high prices for his much sought after specimens! Dunhill has made High Grade pipes for Astley of Jermyn Street for many many years. They are fantastically carved pipes in all the different Dunhill shapes.
