Nørding: Hunting Pipe Smooth Elephant (2015) Tobacco Pipe

Featuring a gestural poise enabled by its lifted heel, this bent Dublin from Erik Nording belongs to his Hunting Pipe series, a line of pipes that take inspiration from a particular game animal each year in order to raise awareness of global conservation efforts. For 2015, the African elephant was commemorated by the series, and that influence is evident in this piece's fluid shaping and in the gray and tan smooth finish that dresses the stummel. The gently flared shank balances out the bowl in profile before giving way to a stem of dark gray acrylic, deftly complementing the tones of the stummel.