Smooth Bent Dublin Sitter (CCC) Tobacco Pipe

Claudio Cavicchi is not only a renowned pipe maker but also a renowned pipe smoker, having won the Committee International of Pipe Smokers Clubs' slow smoking world championship in 1993 by keeping three grams of tobacco lit for just over three hours and nine minutes. Cavicchi only took up pipe making full-time after a 30-year farming career, turning his first pipe when he decided to make his own Oom Paul rather than continuing to wait for delivery of one he already ordered. Cavicchi pipes are known for their superior grain, with former Pipes and tobaccos magazine editor Chuck Stanion remarking that their titular maker "can read briar as though it were a printed page."

This bent Dublin Sitter of Cavicchi's is another testament to his ability to find the best grain possible in a block of briar, decorated as it is by straight, towering flame grain from heel to wide, textured rim. A honey-colored stain allows the grain to shine as bright as possible, and the shaping of the bowl is fascinating: the aft wall is arrow-straight while the fore wall curves lightly inward before straightening to meet the heel for easy sitting. Meanwhile, the muscular shank kicks up into a bent saddle stem of black acrylic. Cavicchi's excellent reading and rendering of the grain is sure to draw the eye first when gazing at this piece, but the functionality he poured into it is no small feat, either.