Sam Cui: Smooth Vase with Silver Tobacco Pipe

Sam Cui's extensive creative background and appreciation for the beauty of the natural world manifests throughout his pipe portfolio, his style evoking an organic sensibility influenced by Japanese and Danish pipe design. While Cui displays artistic inclinations throughout his work, he also shows a focus on utility and practical engineering. The Chinese artisan renders his distinctive take on these shaping cues within particularly compact proportions, with this Vase rendition measuring just over five inches in length. The bowl stands with a dynamic forward cant upon a flat, sure-sitting heel, from which supple walls flare and curve toward the domed, softly undulating rim, the overall figure contouring well to the hand. Balancing the composition out back is a high-kicking shank-and-stem arrangement, with the stem's sharply bent posture well-suited for comfortable jaw hanging. Said stem is fashioned with an asymmetrical saddle, which pairs with the junction's silver accent band to make for a fashionable aesthetic. Dressed in a warm, honey-blonde stain, the stummel displays sweeping vertical grain across both flanks.