Tine Balleby: Smooth Bulldog Tobacco Pipe

The second generation of Balleby pipe makers, Tine Balleby came to the craft through her father Kurt Balleby. She spent years assisting his pipe making — helping with the finishing and stem work — and apprenticing under him to practice fashioning her own pipes. Her work draws on the same quality standards as her father's work, employing dozens of processes to ensure the utmost precision and longevity in every pipe's finish, stem, and engineering, and Tine's own creative eye and artistry enhances the already recognizable and established Balleby aesthetic.

The Bulldog and Rhodesian are among the Ballebys' most distinctive and recognizable shapes, distinguished by either high- or low-set beadlines around the bowl. This Bulldog from Tine features beadlines just above the transition, lending the bowl a Brandy-like aesthetic as it tapers consistently toward the rim. The lower bowl, then, remains more rounded, and its curves are accentuated by the shank's underside, the lines of which Tine continued through the heel. A broad, diamond shank supports the bowl, featuring smaller panels along the flanks for an even stronger geometric motif, and it's all dressed in a smoky stain that highlights vertical grain around the bowl.