German Estates: Cornelius Mänz Sandblasted Pot (2011) Tobacco Pipe

German artisan Cornelius Mänz has been a pipe smoker since he was 18 years old, but has held an interest in the craft of pipe making since he was young. While on a trip to Denmark for his 30th birthday, he witnessed someone shaping briar on a sanding wheel for the first time, inspiring him to make his own and progressing from pre-drilled blocks and preform stems to raw briar and vulcanite rod. Entirely self-taught, Mänz has developed a style that prioritized precision and perfection above all else, doing all of his own shaping exclusively on sanding wheels and tolerating no flaws in his internal engineering whatsoever.

This Pot is one of very few that we've seen from him, and it showcases a silhouette that's quite unlike those that we've seen in the past. Coming in at just under five inches long, this is a remarkably compact piece, with a light weight that promises comfortable clenching and easy pocket carry should you wish to do so. Despite this lightness and abbreviated length, there's a remarkable amount of substance to this pipe, showcasing a rather robust stretch of shank and stem that does well to balance the visual weight of the bowl. The transition is gently cheeked, providing the bowl with more definition of line, and the heel is a sweeping, slightly lifted affair that pushes up at the fore and into a low set waist which marks a subtle taper to the rim. This slight bit of taper is possessed of just enough curvature to make for a wonderful feel in hand, and the rim that it rises to is inflated, providing a sense of softness that counters the more muscular shank and stem. Dressed in an inky sandblast, the bowl here is rounded by dense ring grain that ripples throughout its walls, offering a bit of texture for the fingers to appreciate and making for a pipe that's hard to look away from and just as hard to put down.