Davide Iafisco: Smooth Acorn with Bamboo Tobacco Pipe

When Davide Iafisco fashions an Acorn, he usually does so in rather compact, bulbous, and muscular style, and the Italian carver also often forgoes the design's heel spur in place of a smooth and consistent undercurve. This rendition, though, casts those personal conventions to the wind — presenting, instead, a lithe, sleek, and pertly poised Acorn, replete with a tastefully pointed heel spur. The bowl is still rotund and sublime in hand, but the shank and stem are comparatively trimmer, lending the bowl a perched posture on the end, accentuating its curvature and organic disposition. Furthermore, two knuckles of bamboo extend the shank, adding to this piece's organic inclinations and creating rhythmic lines in combination with the stem base and heel spur. A vivid, honey-blonde stain highlights a stunning cross-grain pattern, with dense birdseye populating the flanks, and the color palette complements the that of the pale bamboo for a bright aesthetic.