AKB Meerschaum: Carved Floral Bent Dublin (Tekin) (with Case) Tobacco Pipe

Meerschaum is renowned around the world not only for its flavor-neutral smoking properties and uncanny ability to patinate, but for its relative ease of carving when compared to briar, allowing artisans to create works of functional sculpture like this bent Dublin. AKB's Tekin has crafted this pipe with a great degree of artistry, not only developing the silhouette of the classic shape wonderfully, but adorning it with relief carvings that would look at home dressing classical architecture. The rim is made up of two separate parts, one being the true rim, which is rounded by a beadline and softly inflated, and the other surrounds that same component, as if it were the petals of a flower surrounding the inner bud, its surface made up of twisting knot work rather than softness. Below this crown of knots is a line of circles, separating it from the carving below- a quartet of flowers that are intertwined with leaves and fronds, framing their shapes beautifully. The shank likewise features knot work carving separated by twin lines of circles, and terminates in a gently inflated end, leading to a deep orange stem that matches the lightly stained meerschaum excellently, its sextet of expansion rings further emphasizing the soft elements of this pipe.