Danish Estates: Kent Rasmussen Sandblasted Liverpool Tobacco Pipe

Kent Rasmussen grew up working with wood, and this passion evolved into a career as a modern artist, though his career evolved as his interests did, and he began professionally making pipes in 1998. This Liverpool is a far more reserved pipe from Rasmussen, as many of his pieces boast complex, baroque designs that feature sharp angles and implied momentum, while this piece is an archetypal rendition of the shape-chart standard. The transition is wide, even slightly obtuse, and it gives way to the shape's requisite extended shank and trim tapering stem, here rendered in sturdy, practical fashion. Though the shank is extended, this pipe still boasts a manageable length of under six inches, and, despite the stocky nature of its construction, it offers a balanced weight conducive to smoking at any time. The bowl here is Remarkably Anglo-French in appearance, with a low-set waist, swiftly curving heel, and a bare bit of taper to the rim, rather than the Danish style's more pronounced, Brandy-like taper. Dressed in a ruddy tanblast, this pipe showcases dense birdseye across the left flank of the bowl and a rippling pattern of growth rings on the right, the tones of the stummel having already darkened with age and use.