Abe Herbaugh: Smooth Blowfish Sitter with Bamboo Tobacco Pipe

One of the United States' most accomplished artisan carvers, Abe Herbaugh's portfolio primarily comprises refined, organic works crafted in the Danish style, all infused with his sophisticated signature style. This sitting Blowfish is an extremely unique piece, representing the first of its kind we've encountered from Herbaugh and being a rare shape in general, displaying a fusion of its piscine namesake and the Pitcher. Outside of this pipe's striking verticality, the most arresting feature of its build is the expressive and pronounced asymmetry that it displays, especially from the smoker's perspective. This difference is less obvious from the flanks, but, from nearly any other point of view, the silhouette takes on a distinct curve to the left that reinforces the organic character of this piece significantly. The visual weight is rooted at the fore and naturally draws the eye to the area of most asymmetry, while a flattened base below the transition lends this pipe its stable sitting ability. From out of this transition, a short, tapering shank lifts sharply to meet a long, subtly curling stretch of bamboo comprising four knuckles of the dense grass, with both ends of this shank extension being capped by trim bands of black vulcanite. A sleek saddle stem caps off the shank and matches the bands framing the bamboo, and its base has been carved to emulate the natural rhythm of said bamboo, all while continuing a divot in the material's left side and poising this pipe for comfortable smoking.

Up front, the bowl expands out of the stummel's central base, flaring out as it does and making a measured turn to the left, its walls reaching a high-set waist and presenting a good deal of supple curvature throughout their surfaces. Compared to many other Blowfish renditions, this example is significantly more curvaceous of bowl and is absent the more oft-seen style of paneled arrangement, though it still stays true to the idea of a bowl physically divided into two flanks. The base area is surrounded by a ridgeline, one that acts as the hub for a pair of other ridges that curl up through the fore wall, with another framing the aft: curling over and surrounding the transition. The ridges that push through the fore wall rise to meet the rim at its own ridgeline, surrounding the rim's soft, inflated surfaces and joining both other ridges. More than just offering additional firmness in hand, these ridgelines frame the pipe's comparatively soft shaping and determine the outline of the bowl, especially the way that the right wall appears to extend further than the left. Additionally, the right wall rises high and boasts a significant degree of arc, greatly contributing to this pipe's asymmetry. Dressed in a warm, rich contrast stain, the stummel here is wrapped in cross grain, with streaks through the fore, rim, heel, and aft, while both flanks are awash in remarkably dense seas of birdseye.