Ropp: Honoré de Balzac Smooth (77) Tobacco Pipe

While Ropp's "77" Billiard maintains the French marque's penchant for svelte lines and classic shaping, it's a larger pipe than most of the designs on their shape chart. Narrow through the shank and transition, this piece features a hearty Billiard bowl on the end, the relative proportions lending the bowl even more visual prominence in profile. With a generous chamber and substantial feel in hand, it's a worthy comfort pipe that encourages relaxing smoking sessions.

Considered one of the founders of European realism, Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright whose work greatly influenced the likes of Charles Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, and Jack Kerouac. Ropp presents their Honoré de Balzac series, composed of Churchwarden shapes, as an homage to the writer — quite the apt commemoration, as Churchwardens are considered popular reading pipes. Perfect for smoking while lounged in an armchair, the characteristically long stem ensures that attention remains on the pages before you, requiring little movement to smoke. It's a series marked by classic French shapes, rendered by a classic French marque in honor of a classic French literary figure, with this particular offering presented in a traditional, auburn stain and accented by the line's flashy nickel accent band.