Claudio Cavicchi: Smooth Bent Apple Sitter (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 in either his signature smooth or sandblasted finishes. Something of a hybrid shape, this piece from Claudio Cavicchi pairs a voluptuous Apple bowl to a vertically inclined shank-and-stem arrangement reminiscent of a Cavalier design. The broad, hearty bowl cants forward from its position on the shank, ebbing outwards while the shank and stem bend more toward the aft of the design. In typical Italian neoclassical style, the bowl possesses most of the composition's visual weight, its sheer size overshadowing the trim proportions of the shank and stem. Said shank extends down below the bowl and comes to a flat foot that allows this pipe to sit stably, making it perfect for a desk while drawing the eye toward the bowl and lower shank. The stummel wears one of Cavicchi's warm, affable, honey-blond smooth finishes, which showcases handsome steaks of flame grain across all sides of the bowl, making it clear why the Italian artisan stamped this piece with four Cs.