American Estates: Clark Layton Smooth Bent Dublin with Ivorite (2019) Tobacco Pipe

Making a pipe is only slightly less involved than building a house, mainly because fewer permits are necessary, and Clark Layton has repurposed his years as a home builder to construct smoking pipes of distinctive style. This Dublin is a fine example, a fusion of elements from the Horn, Freehand and Dublin, its free-flowing, easy curvature is perhaps its most instantly recognizable attribute. There seems to be no transition whatsoever from bowl to shank. Instead, there's one single diminution of diameter gradually descending the bowl into the shank, which is punctuated by a bright wedding band of Ivorite for contrast between the honey-blonde stain of the stummel and the jet-black of the saddle mouthpiece.

While the rim is rough and craggy with plateau, it has an inner rim that has been smoothed, not in a well-defined artificial circle of chamfering, but a natural extension of the plateau. It's a small detail, but one that will permit freer filling of the bowl and more visual interest than you might anticipate. The grain is illuminated by Layton's contrast staining technique, revealing fine strands of angel hair following the natural lines of the bowl. A Goldilocks pipe, size-wise, it's both small and large enough for practical applications and a lasting relationship.