David Huber: Sandblasted Bent Dublin with Boxwood (74) Tobacco Pipe

Known for his distinctive approach in fashioning classic forms, David Huber crafts pipes often informed by Danish design cues, as is the case with this organically designed bent Dublin. The North Carolina-based carver has also imbued the pipe with muscular, compact aesthetics — common conventions within American pipe making — its overall length measuring fewer than five inches. The tall, forward-urging and robust bowl is crowned by extra-craggy plateau along the sloping, flaring rim, while a low-slung transition is followed by a quick rise of the shank, its expanded end graced in plateau, mirroring that of the aforementioned rim. That circular face sets the shaping trajectory then, for the perfectly round ring of pale boxwood adorning the base of the ebony-hued vulcanite stem, the colors lending handsome contrast. The stummel is dressed in a rustic, dark crimson sandblast, elevating the briar's handsome growth rings and flame grain seen throughout this sweeping, rather U-shaped pipe that is a testament to the artisan's skillful, precise carving.