Ping Zhan: Smooth Acorn Sitter with Bamboo Carved Horn Tobacco Pipe

This soft-rimmed Acorn shape from Ping Zhan is supple and gently-flowing of bowl, with its taper at the underside leading naturally to the flattened foot that allows it to sit on an even surface. Showing striking influence from Tokutomi in its slightly canted and bowed rim, it's elegant in its organicism, with a transition that flows easily upward.

The horn extension to this piece is particularly impressive, however. Ping has taken advantage of horn as a material for quite some time now, and has intricately carved it to emulate the rhizomes of bamboo — a process which can take up to four separate sets of tools, as well as four or more hours of work. The result, however, is not only stunning for its detail, but for its ability to work naturally across the piece as a whole. Rather than trying to cut natural bamboo fit the piece, with the material's variations in form and size, this method has allowed Ping to carefully balance length, knuckle rhythm, and palette to achieve the optimal effect.

For a lot more on Ping's carved horn extensions, take a look at this All Pipes Considered video on the subject. As for this piece, there's no doubt that it's one of Ping's most impressive designs, and would be right at home in your collection.

- Rachel DuBose