Italian Estates: Becker Smooth Poker with Bamboo (Three of Hearts) Tobacco Pipe

Founded by Fritz Becker in 1974, the Becker workshop has remained a family institution for half a century, presently manned by third-generation artisan Federico Becker. Becker's style stands out among other Italian pipe makers, not focusing on creating pipes of massively enhanced proportions, but crafting pipes that showcase slender, rakish profiles and a distinctive angularity. The Poker is a shape that the Becker workshop crafts fairly regularly, with a variety of different silhouettes showcased across the workshop's portfolio, though smooth examples such as this are exceptionally rare. Light, lean, and handy, this piece features a subtly raised transition that's set slightly above the flattened heel. This transition gives way to a short, gently tapering shank extended by a length of bamboo comprising two knuckles of the dense grass, affording the aft portion of this piece a handsome organicism. At the end of this bamboo extension, the shank meets a slender saddle stem of black vulcanite, one whose base includes a neat flare out toward the bit, with this flare continuing the natural rhythm of the bamboo and creating a cohesive look throughout. Up front, the bowl stands atop the aforementioned flattened heel and grows towering walls that flare out as they rise to nearly two and a half inches tall, drawing the eye to the fore of the composition and offering a capacious chamber to appreciate. Additionally, the bowl's wealth of surface area provides ample space to showcase this pipe's rich, chestnut-toned stain: revealing seas of birdseye across either flank and dense cross grain through the midsection.