American Estates: Michael Frey Rusticated Bent Brandy (1988) (Unsmoked) Tobacco Pipe

An American artisan and a student of Michael Butera, Michael Frey began making pipes in the 1980s and approached the craft with a mindset that valued quality over quantity, being painstaking in his techniques for both finishing and engineering. His retirement as a carver means that the only way to find his pipes is through the estate market, and his low annual production dictates that these pieces are quite difficult to come by. This bent Brandy is a dramatic example of his work, presenting with a high-kicking shank that lifts out of a wide, low-set transition and meets a tapering stem of jet-black acrylic. The result is a comfortable smoking posture which does well to both balance the physical weight during a clench and the visual weight of the bowl. Said bowl here sits on a flattened heel and base which allows for a balanced sitting near the transitional area, and this broad base area affords the pipe a robust feel in hand. The bowl itself boasts forward canting walls which taper swiftly upward to a flat, smooth rim, the slight curvature of the walls ensuring the composition isn't too muscular. The stummel here is dressed in a craggy rustication which keeps things rugged and highly textural in hand, while the dark stain lends this pipe a serious look.