Smooth Blowfish (Whale) Tobacco Pipe

While he also produces some very fine traditional Danish-style numbers, when it comes to freehands Gabriele takes his inspiration from nature, with a good dose of Japanese pipe design apparent as well. We can see both clearly here, in this compact, muscular Blowfish. Like Alex Florov and Adam Davidson, he also likes to define his renditions of this shape with a graceful hollow-ground channel up front, which simultaneously serves both to divide the bowl's "faces", as well as unify the design as a whole by dividing as it continues rearward - one crease arcing up to join the rim, the other trailing backward to become a defining edge of the shank.

- Eric N. Squires