Alex Florov: Smooth Elephant's Foot with Bamboo and Ivorite Tobacco Pipe

We have only received a few Elephant's Foot pipes from Alex Florov, and this is the first new one we have had the pleasure of offering in seven years. Originally a restorer of museum furniture in Moscow, Alex moved to America and became a successful industrial designer before becoming a pipe maker in 2004. His sharp eye for detail and his expert craftsmanship gave him an enormous head start on pipe making, and he has become famous for his sculptural pipes, most of which he carves by hand with chisels for an unparalleled level of precision.

This sleek rendition offers the design originally pioneered by Bo Nordh in a sculpturally precise, incredibly lithe presentation. The central transverse panel wraps the bowl with twin ridgelines that incorporate discrete concave facets at their margins, amplifying the crispness of the line work without undue distraction. The shaping is perfectly placed to fully accentuate the cross grain, with tight, uniform striations across the central panel and stunning fields of birdseye on the bulbous fore and aft aspects.

While the Elephant's Foot is inherently an elegant and often lithe shape, this one is exceptionally trim, an aesthetic amplified by an elongated five-knuckle stretch of pencil-thin bamboo that curls upward with grace. The vulcanite stem is a work of art unto itself, beginning with an asymmetric expansion ring that mirrors the shield-like shape of the stummel, and continuing with a taper that is diamond in cross section, again echoing the crisp ridgelines around the bowl. Fit and finish is superb, of course, with everything from the hand-funneled mouthpiece to the pointy tip of the heel melded together seamlessly to form an organic triumph.