German Estates: Gunter Kittner Smooth Freehand Bent Dublin with Mammoth Tobacco Pipe

Known as "the man with the golden hands," Gunter Kittner was Germany's first pipe maker after World War II, and he gained a considerable reputation for his distinctive Freehands. Kittner retired in 1984 and produced relatively few pipe over his career, making this particular bent Dublin Freehand something of a rarity. The bowl here is sizeable and quite muscular in its disposition, boasting a tobacco chamber over two inches in depth and a palm-filling presence. The flared rim and tapering toward the heel are obvious marks of the Dublin shape, but compression along the flanks elongates the bowl and gives the rim an oval appearance when view from above. The high-kicking shank-and-stem arrangement is overshadowed by the robust proportions of the bowl, but its elegant curvature promotes a comfortable smoking posture, nevertheless. It's handsomely dressed in a warm, traditional smooth finish and accented with a band of mammoth for an eye-catching and stylish presentation.