Smooth Bent Dublin Tobacco Pipe

As a note of interest, under his old grading system, this pipe would be graded as a "CC" smooth. This is one of my favorite shapes that Claudio includes on a semi-regular basis in his repertoire. I really have to emphasize the "semi" for this is the fifth that we have received since we started to carry his line. To my mind, it is one of the few shapes that blurs the line between the Pesaro and Northern Italian schools. Castello does a version, and so does both Mastro de Paja and Ser Jacopo. Emphasizing the shank and bowl as separate, but dependent entities imbues the composition with a sense of the timeless, in addition to placing the obvious emphasis on the latter. Given the stellar grain on the bowl, I would emphasize that element as well. Then again, if I were grading the grain, using his primary competition as a baseline, this pipe would cost considerably more, wouldn't it?

--Bear Graves