Rainer Barbi Smooth Volcano with Boxwood Ferrule (A3) (2008) (Unsmoked) Tobacco Pipe

This is, to say the least, an incredibly rare pipe. When Rainer Barbi makes a show-stopper, it's (possibly) graded with an 'A'. This is an A3. One can easily understand why it's stamped 'A3', and not 'AAA'. A-grades are rare, and the more stamps applied, the higher the price. Someone could easily stamp an extra letter to make it more expensive, so this protects the piece. When Barbi carves a pipe, he tends to stretch the piece like the legs of a racing horse. This is taunt, yet muscular, and shows obvious forward momentum. Grain flows down the rim like angel hair from it's peak, to a base replete with splendidly dense birdseye. Capping the shank with boxwood does wonders for contrast, but does not distract from the bowl with grain of it's own (like many exotic woods do). Like I said earlier, this is rare. It's not going too far to say 'these are rare', because there are only three ever seen by some people here in the office, and they weren't in our building. It's so rare, that if it were a steak, it would still be out in the fields.

-Adam Davidson