Il Duca: Sandblasted Cherrywood with Boxwood (B) Tobacco Pipe

If you've any experience whatsoever with Il Duca pipes, you're likely well aware that Max Rimensi's shaping style is anything but traditional. This is the result of his obsessive studying of form and function, and his gradual buildup to finally beginning his career as an artisan, taking a great deal of time to sketch designs and tweak his work before reaching a highly organic portmanteau of all the great elements of pipe design. One of his more striking profiles can be seen here in this Cherrywood, a silhouette that is full of curvature and dynamism, taking the usually stoic and upright shape in a new direction.

A signature rendition for Rimensi, this shape is one we've received a fair few times in the last several years, and each time we see one I am astounded both by the consistency of his work and his ability to render the ebb and flow of this shape in such a consistent manner. The stem here is fairly lengthy, with a striking degree of verticality to it that is counterbalanced by its demure curvature. Said vertical orientation is enabled by the upturned shank, ebbing out from a relatively wide transition and flaring as it reaches toward a trim ring of boxwood at the end just before the stem, the softly domed base of which visually extends the shank's reach and rounds it off quite nicely. The shank meets the bowl near the bottom, though not directly at the base, and the bowl itself, though still cylindrical, leans forward on its flat heel and sits on it quite nicely, the curving reminding me of a tree sapling blowing in the wind, while the shank and stem are its branches.

This bowl tapers toward the rim, diminishing only slightly as it rises and bringing the viewer's attention to the transition, giving one full view of Rimensi's shaping ability, as well as the inky black sandblast that dresses the briar. This blast reveals some diagonally oriented growth rings that ripple down from the bowl's left fore, their undulations striated by visible, raised flame grain as they cascade toward the heel. The dark hues of the briar are sharply contrasted by the boxwood accent's pale yellow color, creating an aesthetic that is reserved and serious, though quite organic.