American Estates: Cardinal House Hollingsworth Smooth Bent Dublin with Silver (E16) Tobacco Pipe

Cardinal House pipes are made by Walt Cannoy, a respected artisan whose experience in the craft goes back to the 1990s. Each of Cannoy's pipes are completely hand made and hand finished, and the Cardinal House line was specifically created to offer all of these features in a series that included artful shaping at a reasonable price. This particular bent Dublin rendition is one of the most sinuous pipes I've ever seen from the American carver, with a strikingly bent shank-and-stem combination that eschews much of the presence of the former, while extending the latter to a lengthy stretch of jet-black vulcanite that's deeply curved for comfortable smoking. The transition is extremely tightly knit, and the shank that ebbs out of it is quite short, the junction marked by a broad band of silver. From out of a steeply curvaceous heel, the bowl flares out to a vast, forward-slanting rim crowned with plateau. Dressed in a warm auburn stain, the stummel here showcases a wealth of wrapping flame grain around the bowl's circumference.