Doctor's: Smooth Calabash with Bamboo and Boxwood (Flash Grade) Tobacco Pipe

Though famously introduced to the pipe world by way of Dunhill's Whangee, bamboo-adorned briars are no longer fashioned as a means of saving briar, and it's not uncommon to encounter the distinctive, knuckle-adorned stuff employed in some of the finest pipes on the market today. And if you were to ask some of the most serious collectors of artisan pipes who produces some of the most holistically visionary bamboo-incorporating pieces, with some of the wildest bamboo found on a pipe, they're likely to point you to a singular carver: Roman Kovalev.

Indeed, the idiosyncratic mind behind Doctor's Pipes has an eye for gnarlier stretches of bamboo, as it seems these pieces tend to act as a catalyst for inspiring the forms themselves, rather than acting as an external adornment. With this Calabash, Roman opted for a slightly more subdued approach than his characteristically atypical fare, visually unifying the composition through use of a domed inner-rim of pale honey-blonde boxwood, framing a succinct briar bowl set within, and complementing the warm hues of the bamboo shank extension beautifully. A craggy outer-rim of plateau offers a sense of contrast in terms of palette and shaping, juxtaposing the smooth-polished bowl with asymmetrically craggy briar on all flanks. Each bamboo node has been accented with a bead of boxwood to carry on the sense of warmth, further bolstered by a boxwood accent at the shank's end. It's not as weird as we've come to expect from Roman, but it's certainly impressive.