Starkov: Smooth Fibonacci Tobacco Pipe
Product Number: 002-650-0009
Starkov is stellar. Nonetheless, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that most pipe smokers, or even most of those who specifically collect pipes as a form of functional art as well, hadn't heard of Boris. The reason for this isn't a matter of location or language barrier, or anything like that, but simply because he's known to do nearly all his work on the basis of private commissions. In other words, even those few retailers who, like us, are able to get their hands on Boris Starkov's work at all don't see it often.
An admirer of the legacies created by the likes of Albrecht Durer and Leonardo Bonacci (a.k.a. Fibonacci), it's little surprise that Boris's own work is often as much art as a pipe. Here for example he was clearly inspired by the Fibonacci spiral, an application of a Fibonacci number sequence to geometry. Just as the spiral takes a sequence of numbers to create a two-dimensional image, Boris takes the principles of that spiral and uses them to create a three-dimensional form. What's more, he doesn't stick to just playing this out in say, an aspect of a silhouette or cross-section, but has the whole shape turning and twisting through space. Doing this gracefully as well as with clean precision is no small challenge, but evidently Boris is more than up to it. Despite its M.C. Escher-esque complexity of perspective, the Fibonacci or sometimes just "Fibo" has become a Starkov signature shape.
- Eric N. Squires


















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SoldMeasurements & Other Details
- Length: 4.82 in./122.43 mm.
- Weight: 2.70 oz./76.54 g.
- Bowl Height: 2.17 in./55.12 mm.
- Chamber Depth: 1.70 in./43.18 mm.
- Chamber Diameter: 0.82 in./20.83 mm.
- Outside Diameter: 2.16 in./54.86 mm.
- Stem Material: Vulcanite
- Filter: None
- Shape: Freehand
- Finish: Smooth
- Material: Briar
- Country: Russia