Smooth Egg with Mastodon Ivory Tobacco Pipe

Miniature, perhaps even demure, this handsomely lean, perfectly balanced Egg is small enough in size to satisfy any nose warmer enthusiast, yet it's large enough in personality to capture the attention of any pipe smoker or collector anywhere. Seriously, the piece is that gorgeous. With a perfectly smooth heel-to-shank transition and some elegantly tapered bowl cheeks, the bowl moves into the shank seamlessly. The stem work here is precise, as you should expect from Jeff, and is especially attractive in this instance accented with the smallest wafer of mastodon ivory. And as usual, the pipe maker has offered us an incredible piece of briar in its own right, beautifully grained, particularly at the anterior of the bowl and ventral side of the shank, where horizontally oriented tiger stripes ripple across in plain sight.

-- Ted Swearingen