Misc. Estates: Mikhail Garmash Sandblasted Poker with Bamboo Tobacco Pipe

Ukrainian born artisan Mikhail Garmash lives and works in the city of St. Petersburg, Russia. Throughout his adult life, Garmash experimented with a variety of different hobbies, though it wasn't until 2016 that he discovered pipes and pipe making, something that would become his full-time career in 2018. On his journey into the world of artisan pipe making, he was fortunate enough to find himself the pupil of Andrey Grigoriev, with whom he worked for a year, being taught the ins and outs of carving, drilling, and finishing. Additionally, Mikhail has found inspiration in the works of Victor Yashtylov, one of the great master makers in Russia, and has dedicated himself to quality above all else, producing around 70 to 80 pipes total per year. This particular example is an interesting take on the Poker shape, one that includes the low-set transition and straight shank and stem which are indicative of the shape, yet benefits from the addition of a few eye-catching design choices. The bowl, rather than being a simple cylinder, features a pronounced flare from the base to the rim reminiscent of the Dublin shape, with a ridgeline at the zenith of its flare that marks the start of a domed rim. Not only this, but the bowl is possessed of a subtle forward cant, which not only adds a bit of dynamism and momentum to the profile, but also angles the shank upward a touch, poising its stem in an elegant, refined way. The shank is quite trim and meets a thin ring of vulcanite at its end, pairing it with a stretch of two knuckles of bamboo, a divot present on the left flank continued by the vulcanite and the briar, marrying the three materials naturally. The lithe saddle stem at the end of this piece features an expansion ring that maintains the natural rhythm of the bamboo's own flares, further unifying the silhouette of the pipe, and the entire stummel is dressed in a warm auburn stain and textural sandblast, keeping the look classic and revealing some handsome ring grain that rises up the bowl's surface.