Il Duca: Sandblasted Acorn with Silver (B) Tobacco Pipe

Max Rimensi, the man behind Il Duca pipes, has one of the most singular, striking shaping styles that I've ever seen from any Italian artisan, surely the result of his many years of observation, and, more importantly, constant imaginative sketching. This style is a fusion of many styles, with obvious Japanese organicism and American revival seen in this Acorn, a shape that we've seen a few times from Rimensi, though in this example, I feel he's come into his own, refining it to the point of drawing, alluring beauty. The stem is a classic, tapered affair with a demure curvature about it whose base is adorned with a petite expansion ring, meeting a silver domed shank face that slopes swiftly down to the shank proper, starting a slow, arcing taper to the transition. Said transition is, appropriately, fairly pinched, and is very tightly knit, supporting an expansive bulb of a bowl that is one of the most acorn-like I've ever had the pleasure of observing. All of this is supported by a small, flattened heel, something that, strikingly, allows the entire piece to sit stably, as well as providing a fantastic place for the bowl to begin its rapid expansion to the domed rim, its shape curved slightly forward and offering a gentle momentum to the composition. The overall shaping reminds me very much of the Fig shape, though if it were given a more compressed, dynamic stance, and a more dramatic sense of expansion throughout. The stummel is dressed in a truly beautiful contrast stain and textural sandblast, showcasing a concentric ring-grain pattern rising up the bowl from the heel, with an absolute wealth of blasted birdseye on the inflated rim, enhancing the look of this pipe even further.