Claudio Cavicchi: Smooth Bent Brandy (CCCC) Tobacco Pipe

One of Italy's finest pipe makers, Claudio Cavicchi has carved pipes for over 40 years and is still going strong. Cavicchi crafts a wide variety of shapes, and each one showcases spectacular grain patterns dressed in his signature smooth and sandblasted finishes. The bent Brandy is one of Claudio Cavicchi's favorite shapes to craft, and he creates everything from traditional renditions to imaginative reinterpretations — this bent Brandy is the latter. The shank steals the show here, as it joins the bowl at an expansive transition and descends below the bottom of the bowl, forming a spur; furthermore, the shank face features a ring of asymmetrical briar, disguising the mortise-and-tenon arrangement and giving the bottom of the stem a wavy appearance. The bowl's rim parallels this wavy pattern, topping a curvaceous Brandy bowl where one can see undulating growth rings wrapping around the bowl in another wavy pattern.