Italian Estates: Castello Sea Rock Briar Bent Billiard (KKK) Tobacco Pipe

One of Castello's stylized approaches to pipe making is their way of combining muscular, neoclassically inclined bowls with elegant, trim stretches of shank and stem. While the bowl commands much of the piece's visual weight, it's only possible due to the workshop's expert Italian way of handling shape chart standards and knowing how to style the proportions of each piece. That is readily evident here with this bent Billiard, a rendition that takes particularly well to Castello's signature Sea Rock rustication, accentuating the bowl's masculine nature and balancing it with the gracefully bent stem out back. The stummel's rugged texture provides an abundance of rich texture in hand with the dark, ruby-tinged stain recalling those seen on briars fashioned in the early 20th century.