Doctor's: Smooth Bent Apple with Bamboo and Black Ebony (Grand Flash) Tobacco Pipe

Doctor Roman Kovalev is a man of seemingly boundless talent, having worked for 16 years as a pediatric neurologist before expanding his repertoire to include distiller, race car driver, and distributor of fine coffee making supplies to much of Russia. Not only this, but he's also a maker of fine artisan pipes, utilizing a scientific approach that sees him taking painstaking efforts to ensure construction and quality of the highest caliber. This bent Apple is an excellent example of his work and its inclusion of bamboo speaks to a very specific technique that Kovalev uses to bore through the dense grass: Rather than drilling through it with a bit, Roman instead slowly burns through his bamboo with a thin, red-hot metal rod that rotates as it pushes, sometimes taking many hours but achieving a smoother draft hole through the material and able to use deeply bent sections of bamboo.

The bamboo here is paired to a trim shank via a thin band of black vulcanite, taking on a striking curvature as it sweeps upward to meet an expansive fitment of black ebony. The fitment here serves to maintain the bamboo's natural rhythm, flaring out to mimic the four knuckles that lift it skyward, and meets a smartly downturned, compact saddle stem that matches the vulcanite band at the shank. Each of the four knuckles here is dotted with a nodule that has been embellished by seamlessly integrated pearls of the same black ebony that forms the shank end disc. The organic aesthetic fostered by the bamboo's curling ascension is bolstered by the wonderfully rotund bowl which it supports up front, its incredible shapeliness lending it an appearance similar to a berry being held aloft by a stem bowed with the weight of its fruit.

This bowl is everything one could want from an Apple shape, the aforementioned plumpness lending it a fantastic feel in hand, filling out the contours of the fingers beautifully with enough room at the transition for draping a digit. This is really all you need as well, given the incredible compactness of this piece, coming in at just a touch over four and a half inches long. A sweeping, lifted heel supports the bowl, pushing outward to meet a high-set waistline which is reminiscent of the Acorn, and from here the briar takes on an arcing taper to the rim. Outside of being profoundly comfortable, this bowl acts as a beautiful canvas for the honeyed mahogany stain of the stummel, revealing wrapping flame grain throughout the bowl's circumference and a basin of birdseye at the underside: its incredible shaping and grain earning it Doctor's coveted Grand Flash grade.