Misc. Estates: Chris Asteriou Sandblasted Canadian (94/18) (2018) Tobacco Pipe

Chris Asteriou has quite a unique approach to design, something undoubtedly informed by his formal education as an architect, his following career in that field, and his experience in industrial design. Chris began his craft with a great admiration for classic Anglo-French marques and the tradition of Old World pipe design. As he continued, however, his awareness of the Danish and Japanese schools grew, as did his fascination with them, leading to pieces with more implied momentum, more softness, and more organicism about their builds.

This Canadian is certainly one of the more classically-oriented pipes within Asteriou's portfolio, though it's one which he's altered slightly, adding a personal touch that keeps the eye focused on the pipe's silhouette. A wide transition here gives way to the shape's archetypal combination of shank and stem, pairing an extremely trim stem of black vulcanite to a lengthy ovoid shank. The shank itself is longer than one would normally expect, and it takes on a consistent, subtle taper from the transition to its end, balancing the tweaked proportions of this pipe so that the visual weight is evenly distributed. A flat underside allows this pipe to sit fairly sturdily and supports the rounded heel of the bowl, with the bowl's walls taking on a slight taper and forward cant as they rise to a gently chamfered rim. Dressed in an inky sandblast, there's plenty of lovely grain on display here, with rippling growth rings lining the flanks of the bowl as birdseye covers the fore and aft.