Ardor: Meteora Bent Apple Tobacco Pipe

This Freehand-style bent Apple from Ardor thoroughly illustrates the Italian marque's bold shaping style, combining the Apple's plump bowl with a more symmetrical take on the Blowfish's bifurcating ridgelines for an intriguing yet comfortable presence in the hand. The bowl stands tall with an upright posture, formed by thick walls curving from the rounded heel toward the rim. A continuous U-shaped ridgeline is set near the fore of the bowl, wrapping around the heel and connecting to the rim at both flanks, adding a playful touch to the design. Out back, a muscular shank lifts out of the transition from the bowl, carrying a gradual taper as it joins to an arcing saddle stem of jet-black acrylic, the arrangement lending greater visual weight to the fore of the composition. The stummel wears Ardor's Meteora finish, named after a rock formation in Greece upon which one of the largest complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries is built. Owing to its namesake, this finish boasts a wealth of textural variety as it dresses the surface with a rugged rustication set beneath a latticed arrangement of smooth, carved channels, granting an architectural quality, here wearing a light, natural finish. Echoing the stem, the rim is stained a dark, inky hue, offering a bit of contrast to this pipe's palette.