Tom Eltang: Smooth Bent Pot Tobacco Pipe

Tom Eltang's shaping style is as varied as his influences, ranging from remarkably dynamic and expressive pieces of a sculptural and artistic inclination to refined, reserved, and practical pieces that draw from the Functionalist design school. This bent Pot toes the line between those camps, and its appearance is immediately reminiscent of Eltang's signature Eskimo shape, presenting with an extremely compressed combination of shank and stem. The transition is wide, leaving plenty of room to drape a digit before it gives way to the shank's broad expanse, its breadth flanked by a pair of panels, with ridges on either flank following the outline as the briar curls gently upward to meet a sleekly tapering stem of black vulcanite. This stem continues the trajectory of the ridges on the sides, extending an understated muscularity through the aft side that nicely balances some of the visual weight at the fore. The lowermost ridges on the shank continue through the underside and wrap around to meet at the fore, highlighting the heel's subtle upturn and marking the start of the bowl's thick, flaring walls that expand out to another rounded ridgeline. These twin ridges frame the walls and add a good bit of musculature to the fore portion of the stummel, with the topmost ridge additionally denoting a swift taper to the flat rim: the stummel's silhouette showcasing stylistic similarities to both the Rhodesian and bent Dublin. Compact, but rather stout, this pipe is dressed in a warm, rich stain and smooth finish that showcases handsome grain throughout, with flame grain wrapping around the bowl and flowing through the shank while vast plains of birdseye swirl around the top and underside.