David Huber: Smooth Blowfish with Boxwood (2118) Tobacco Pipe

David Huber is one of the prominent American carvers who integrates a fair degree of Japanese style into his aesthetic (Adam Davidson also comes to mind when considering this blend of styles). In this Blowfish — a shape with Japanese origins as the "Fugu" — David has leaned quite heavily into the flowing organicism of the Japanese school while staying true to his own personality as an artisan.

This number falls in line with other Blowfish renditions we've seen from Huber, particularly in the vast size difference between the two flanks, bisected by the shape's canted, cross grain-adorned panel running through the middle. As such, the Blowfish is a naturally asymmetric design, yet Huber keeps things well balanced via the underside's center ridgeline, traveling from the paneled shank all the way through the bowl's fore to the rim. While the other lines and curves of the piece contrast and slant to various degrees, this undergirding line remains constant and arrow straight supporting the foundation of the form as a whole.

Continuing the organic aesthetic at play, the chamfered rim is also concave in profile, adding even more crispness as the left flank's two ridgelines come to points on either end. It's all dressed, then, in one of David's alluring, auburn stains and accented with a lighter-hued ferrule of boxwood at the shank face.