Brown Smooth Bent Pot 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 Pot from Cavicchi is fronted by a deep bowl — 1.69 inches in this case — which is made possible by the fore wall continuing to arc underneath the shank, giving this piece a generous point at the bottom. Lightly swirled flame grain decorates the walls of the bowl beautifully, and the offset, pointed heel is unusual for a Pot, but works great with this particular piece to give it a fascinating profile. The shank is upturned, emerging from just above the heel spike, and joins seamlessy with a lightly bent saddle stem of brindled light brown and dark brown acrylic.