Ardor: Tabacco Tomato with Silver Tobacco Pipe

Though the Ardor pipes workshop was founded in 1974 by father-son team Angelo and Dorelio Rovera, the pipe making history of the family stretches back to 1911, with the founding of Sociedade Rovera in Varese, Italy. It was at here that Angelo began to carve pipes alongside his father and uncles, starting at the age of 13 in 1958, Ardor's debut into the pipe world marked by a high-standard of craftsmanship that's remained consistent for nearly five decades. Though Angelo passed away in 1999, Ardor is now run by Dorelio, alongside both Damiano and Dimitri, the next generation of Roveras. Ardor's pipes are often typified by their strikingly neoclassical proportions, with each piece offering greatly enhanced substance about the bowl and a reassuring presence in hand. This Tomato is a unique iteration of the shape, maintaining the profile's squat, rotund bowl while pairing it with an Oom Paul-like shank-and-stem combination. A shallow transition marks the start of a thick, tapering shank that lifts nearly vertically to meet a broad silver dome at the junction to a sharply bent stem of black acrylic. The stance this pairing takes on lends this piece an excellent jaw-hanging stature and does well to balance the visual weight of the bowl. Said bowl stands atop a lifted heel and flares out to a firm, mid-set waistline before tapering to the rim, the look reminiscent of a Rhodesian and complete with thick, palm-filling walls. As part of the Italian workshop's Tobacco series, a trio of tobacco leaves have been carved into the bowl's lower flanks, their lighter stain and smooth surfaces standing out against the rest of the stummel's dark, craggy rustication.