German Estates: Tom Richard Smooth Apple with Coccobolo (Unsmoked) Tobacco Pipe

A former architecture student and long-time pipe smoker, Tom Richard began his pipe making career with encouragement from Poul Winslow and instruction from Rainer Barbi, the German artisan crafting fine pieces such as this Apple. A thoroughly stylized take on the classic shape, the bowl here takes on quite a different form compared to Anglo-French interpretations, with an appropriately plump body, but a forward-urging rim that lifts up at the fore. A lifted heel supports this bowl, while some thick walls surround the chamber, keeping the hand insulated and adding further to the lovely feel in hand. A pinched transition leads to a flaring shank, whose flare continues through a sizeable fitment of cocobolo. Here the stem marries the stummel, nestling into its chamfered face and flaring out into a firm expansion ring before slipping into a saddle bit, its cumberland hues contrasting the light auburn hues of the briar. Unsmoked.