Giove Fantasy Tobacco Pipe

There is now way around it. I have to come up with a name for this shape, it is an out-and-out Ardor signature form, one I dearly love, and "shield" is about as close as I can get. for now. Not a Danish-style shield, though I have seen Tom Eltang do a couple of shield briars that follow the more overt "coat-of-arms" style front panel, rather than the reinforced disk form. This front panel has much in common with the transition shields that appeared between the kite and the heater in the late 13th century, but features a good deal more head-to-toe convexity. The deft beveling that lies toward the rear, in concert with the staunch height of the shank, leads to a cool sense of reinforcement of the front (along with the obvious greater emphasis on the same). The grain of this defiantly individual pipe, is as lovely as I have seen in a Giove.

--Bear Graves