Bruno Nuttens: Handmade Sandblasted Bent Dublin with Horn (A) Tobacco Pipe

Though he was born in Belgium, Bruno Nuttens calls France home, moving there after attending university to study literature. In 2012, Nuttens purchased a collection of old estate pipes with the intent to keep only one, however, he thought it would be a terrible waste to dispense with the rest. To avoid this waste, Nuttens began restoring the pipes, leading to a career as a respected and prolific pipe restorer, reviving over 7,000 pipes in the proceeding six years and becoming intimately familiar with their craftsmanship and acquiring an eye for artistic shaping. After being inducted into the Confrérie des Maîtres Pipiers de Saint-Claude in 2013, Nuttens began making pipes, inspired and assisted by fellow inductee Pierre Morel. Bruno continued to restore pipes over the next few years, making pipes as a side business until 2018, when he refocused to carve them full-time. Later bolstered by instruction from Tom Eltang, Nuttens has made a name for himself as a maker of high-quality pieces which draw inspiration from the French, Danish, and German schools of carving.

Nutten's Handmade series showcases the Belgian-born artisan's most impressive and personal work, with each piece in the line being carved and finished completely by hand. This bent Dublin is a handsome example of Nutten's shaping style, which marries Anglo-French classicism with the elegant line work of the Danish school of design. Shape-wise, this piece features a tall bowl that stands at the fore of an upturned shank and a demurely curved tapered stem. Said bowl flares from its conservative heel to its broad, plateau-crowned rim, and as it does, it takes on a subtle forward cant that lends the composition a dynamic appearance in profile. A crisp sandblast dresses the stummel and highlights gorgeous grain across the bowl's flanks, while a ferrule of horn graces the shank end and lends a touch of vibrant color to the pipe's otherwise muted palette.