Trademark Liverpool (KK) Tobacco Pipe

As I haven't often described Castellos before, I was somewhat surprised to learn that the warmth of the Trademark finish has it's origins in a red dye made from. a tropical insect? (The cochineal, to be exact. Montezuma apparently used to require a supply of the same dye as tribute from conquered cities.) But on to the pipe: The first thing which struck me about this charming little liverpool was the immediate sense of lightness in picking it up; despite its rather sturdy proportioning, it feels no heavier than, say, one of Stanwell's more slender Featherweights. The grain pattern is far from symmetrical, though what it may lack in regularity, it more than compensates for in density dynamism. Bands of flame-grain and the intricate convolutions of birdseye cover every inch of a paradoxically simple, classical shape.

- Eric N. Squires