Rattray's: Fachen (108) (9mm) Tobacco Pipe

A particularly classic rendition of the straight Apple, Rattray's "108" design beautifully exemplifies the balanced proportional standards of the traditional shape, fitting in well to English interpretations of the pipe chart archetype. There's a touch of added muscularity about the shank to accommodate a 9mm filter, and it pairs naturally with the bowl's rounded curves, which both insulate the chamber well and provide a substantial fit in hand.

Described by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands, a four-volume compilation of fairy tales and Scottish folklore, the Fachen is a giant of singular features, displaying a single eye in the middle of its face, a single tuft of hair atop its head, a single hand protruding from its chest, and a single leg supporting it from below. Oddly enough, that description fits in quite well with the characteristics of a pipe: a single shank emerging from the side of a single bowl (like an arm from out of the chest), within which lies a single chamber (a myopic eye), and after issuing a charring light, such loose leaves of tobacco could very well resemble a tuft of hair. Such uncanny similarities have prompted the Scottish marque to devote a whole series to the mythical beast, offering pipes marked by a dark green color palette and a sandblasted finish.