I've been thinking a lot recently about how little the pipe has changed over the course of time. Sure, the shapes coming from artisan pipemakers these days are pretty mind-blowing, and of course, there are innovations like Peterson's iconic System Pipes, pipes with filters, pipes with stingers, but the core technology remains the same; there's a chamber for tobacco and a shaft through which to pull smoke.

This may sound like a bad thing when placed within the context of our internet enabled society, where perpetual progressive technological upgrades are by now culturally ingrained (not that this is a bad thing either, seeing as you can check our bi-weekly updates on your smart phone while at work, which some of you are probably doing right now), but this is part the pipe's appeal, I think. That pipe your grandfather smoked is in essence the same as the pipe you might pick up new today, lending a certain "design memory" that spans and connects generations. What else is there in our lives today about which we can say the same?

I've always found it interesting that sharks, so they say, essentially stopped evolving millions of years ago when a point was reached where major improvements were no longer necessary; as a predatory machine of the ocean its basic design has long been perfected. You have specialized outliers like the hammerhead, or species that scour through sand for food, but most have varied largely in trade-offs between size, speed, and power to fill their environmental niche. Maybe the same can be said of the tobacco pipe.

Speaking of, we have a bevy of pipes going up on the site today from Lasse Skovgaard, Michal Novak, Tsuge, Ashton, Luciano, Johs, Brigham, Savinelli, and Peterson, along with estates from Denmark, England, and Italy. Alongside these perfectly formed specimens we're today featuring the Blitz Clean System pipe-cleaning solution, the Pipa corncob pipe and tobacco combo, and the introduction of the new Swag Domincan puro cigars.

 John Sutherland: Marketing Mngr and Sr. Photographer