Alexander Tupitsyn: Smooth Cherrywood Tobacco Pipe

Quite a departure from his usual, firm-lined, Ilsted-inspired numbers, this Cherrywood from Alexander Tupitsyn is quite a charming and playful take on the old shape class. Though normally a fairly organic and quiet design, here Alexander has added a touch of whimsy through the cinched, hourglass-like waistline of the bowl, fanning out as it approaches the trumpeting, slightly domed rim. Matching that more playful style, the transition is also fairly low-set, countered by a shank that features a strong upward curling gesture, leading the eye up to the subtle downturn of the saddle-stem.

Putting all that together, you might expect this to be a rather large design, but it's actually quite diminutive — measuring just under four and a half inches from end to end. Weighing less than 40 grams, it should also hang comfortably in the jaw, though it is a steady sitter and that style of taller bowl and transition do make it easy in hand as well. To top it all off, the cross-cut grain pattern is as neatly oriented as it is vivid, with seas of whirling birdseye to either flank and a trim column of crossgrain running right down the center. Just beautiful work from Tupitsyn here.

- Andrew Wike