American Estates: Bruce Weaver Smooth Tulip with Spalted Maple (2009) Tobacco Pipe

Bruce Weaver was a man not only known for his immense talent in the craft of pipe making, but for his kindness and patience. Weaver was a man who took pride in his art, and who was joyful in knowing the pleasure that his pipes brought to people, and he's been missed greatly since his passing in 2019. This Tulip was carved in 2009, around the same time the American artisan was being taught by Todd Johnson, and, for a piece made so early on in his tutelage, it reminds me of a certain pipe made by a certain Ivarsson in that it shares a similar internal curvature, a similar angle of shank and stem, similar bowl orientation, and a similar sinuous undercurve. The bowl of this Tulip, however, is much less dramatically flared, lending it a graceful demeanor, its slight bulge giving it a comfortable presence in hand. The warm mahogany stain dressing the pipe reveals streaks of flame grain along the circumference of the stummel, the rim crowned with dense birdseye.