English Estates: Ashton Pebble Grain Panel (1989) Tobacco Pipe

While paneling tends to create a rigid, geometric effect, the panels on this Ashton Billiard still manage to retain an organic look and feel to them. Instead of being perfectly flat and resting flush with each other, they dip inward, and the edges of their vertices are rounded. The slightly concave nature of the panels gives the rim of this pipe an interesting shape — angular and diamond-like, but rounded at the edges.

There's a rather understated symmetry to this pipe (this, too, can be attributed to the paneling.) Both flanks and the fore and aft of the bowl each house one vertex where the panels come together, making the vertices equidistant to each other. Also keeping the overall composition balanced are the shank and stem, with both being roughly the same length as the bowl is tall.

With its angular silhouette, soft edges, and highly textured earth-toned sandblast, this pipe bridges the gap beautifully between organic and geometric sensibilities.