Tonni Nielsen Smooth Bent Dublin (6) (Unsmoked) Tobacco Pipe

Beautiful grain, lithe and intuitive shapes have been part and parcel of the Tonni Nielsen "package" for eons, and one glance at the fine briar on your monitor will leave no doubt that Tonni's legendary reputation is well and truly earned. A delicate ridge forms from the subtlest of spills at 10:00 on the rim and the tiny rivulet runs all the way down the shank, continuing even into the form of the saddle bit. The bit itself could serve as a muted microcosm of Tonni's overarching, stem-to-stern integration of composition. While not only creating form continuity with bowl and shank, the length imbues this pipe with a perfect sense of visual balance, enables a sublime completion of a graceful sine curve and allows the button to finish its travels at the exact same plane as the rim. Then (of course) there is all of that grain to consider.

--Bear Graves