Alexander Hasty: Smooth Bent Egg with Boxwood Tobacco Pipe

Alexander Hasty often crafts pipes imbued with a strong degree of visual momentum and fluid gesture, and the American artisan enjoys shapes that seem to rush forward with a certain, sinuous flow. As such, his style takes inspiration from the Danish design tradition, in line with the modern American artisan pipe-making movement, with pipes that pair supple curvature with plump and compact proportions. This bent Egg is a perfect example of Hasty's work, the composition under five inches in length yet quite muscular through the shank and bowl. The undercurve the shank curls languidly through the heel, mirrored by the stem's recurve, before rising more upright into the bowl's fore. The angle of the rim creates a slight point at the fore in silhouette, realizing the visual momentum initiated by the S-curve and the bowl's forward cant. Flaring from the transition, the shank expands toward the stem base before suddenly dropping at the saddle's shoulders to the slender mouthpiece. Though the stem base is slight and minimal, it still continues the flaring lines of the shank, a subtle detail that perfectly incorporates the stem into the overall composition, separating from the stummel via a rounded ring of boxwood. The light, beige hues of that accent complement the lighter tones of the stummel's chestnut contrast stain, highlighting cross grain along the flanks and birdseye fore and aft.