Benni Jorgensen: Smooth Acorn Tobacco Pipe

A stunning piece from Benni, this Acorn is a lovely representation of the Danish carver's skill and style. The sweeping lines and playful use of up-turned edges are all conventions of Jorgensen's work and are on beautiful display in this piece.

With a lenticular shank that tapers both in profile and from an aerial perspective, the underside flows seamlessly into the bowl, lending the form a gentle silhouette and contributing to its comfortable feel in hand. Benni has pinched the shank to fashion crisp ridgelines along each flank. They both dissipate into the bowl's grain, and at the shank end continue their trajectory through the slightly up-turned half saddle stem. While such a subtle feature is delightful in and of itself, it's made all the more so in how it echoes the scooped rim. In the same way that the flanking ridgelines flick upward at either end, so do the fore and aft edges of the rim, creating an undulating curve that parallels the ridgelines and heel below.

Jorgensen rarely adorns his pipes in accents, instead allowing the grain and form of his pieces to attract all the deserved attention. This piece is no exception. The warm contrast stain brings out stunning flame grain across the bowl, while the concave rim and underside are studded in tight-knit birdseye. It's quite simply a gorgeous piece and one that fits right into Benni's portfolio.