Smooth Acorn with Bamboo and Mastodon Ivory Tobacco Pipe

When the most recent batch of briars arrived from Hiroyuki Tokutomi, we found ourselves presented with two particular curiosities: a pair of pipes featuring shanks not of bamboo runner, but bamboo stalk instead. Noticeably duskier, and with a far smoother, more even form despite coming from the same natural source it makes for a very different look than the prominently-knuckled stuff we're used to seeing from artisan pipemakers. As with the other piece (a Squat Tomato), he's matched up to a very softly contoured bowl design, here a particularly plump Acorn - one that, of course, also benefits from some of Tokutomi's signature play of "balanced asymmetry".

- Eric N. Squires