Wolfgang Becker Smooth Wasp with Boxwood (Wolf Paw) (Unsmoked) Tobacco Pipe

This is the Wolfgang Becker shape, and as far as signatures go, he chose an interesting one. While he's not the only pipemaker to employ wasp-waisted transitions and broadly flaring shanks, his are distinguished by both being rendered within the context of smooth, clean Danish-inspired shaping, and the fact that he manages to pull it off with such a fine sense of balance (the latter being particularly accentuated by the rather minimalist nature of the former). This is the first smooth-finished example of this Becker design I've ever personally handled, and I must say he did a fantastic job orienting the splendid flame grain and birdseye on this asymmetrical rendition of an already challenging shape.

- Eric N. Squires