American Estates: Jody Davis Partially Sandblasted Rhodesian with Mammoth (FC14) (03) (2014) Tobacco Pipe

Throughout the '70s and '80s, many American pipe makers looked to Italy for pipe design inspiration or riffed off of the Danish Fancy style that was especially popular in that time period. The '90s and '00s, though, saw a shift of sorts, with American artisans utilizing shaping methods and ideas of Danish artisans who expounded upon Sixten Ivarsson's "shape first, drill second" approach yet still fashioned more traditional designs compared to the Danish Fancy style. Jody Davis was one of those pioneering American artisans, and he has since gone on to inspire and teach a number of current American carvers, helping to have shaped the design aesthetic popular among pipe makers in America. This lengthy Rhodesian serves as a quality example of that style — the shaping traditional, yet more soft-lined, per Danish influence, but the shank bearing noticeably more muscularity, offering what's now referred to as an American Industrial motif. Boasting Jody's deft sandblasting work, this piece offers delightful texture and is subtly accented with a wedding band of mammoth along the shank end before introducing the demi-Churchwarden mouthpiece.