Sandblasted Long Shank Tomato Tobacco Pipe

Chris Asteriou has played with this long-shanked Tomato design before, and here he presents yet another iteration of the form. Both versions riff off of Danish shaping cues, particularly in the elongated shank, but the Greek carver reinterprets them through his own creative artistry. In the latter iteration, Chris focused more on sleekness and crisp line work, the shank being consistently round and flaring toward the stem. Here, though, he's prioritized gesture and curve — the shank oval of cross section, and though still flared toward the stem, much more upward-flicking. Matching the shank's pinched orientation, the bowl is similarly squat and broad, continuing the profile's dynamic momentum. As is common in Asteriou's more organically shaped pieces, he's incorporated a slight heel spur just below the transition, the protruding point lending the bowl a more perched-like posture as well as informing the lifted, forward-urging gesture of the heel. Lastly, Chris has dressed it in one of the craggier iterations of his dark-stained sandblast, the rough texture juxtaposed against the shape's smooth lines, while the smooth-polished rim reinforces the Danish influence and provides an elegant contrast.