Former: Sandblasted Acorn with Ivorite Tobacco Pipe

Hans "Former" Nielsen has supervised the W.Ø. Larsen workshop, worked with Emil and Jess Chonowitsch, helped develop the marque Bentley, and refined his renowned pipe making skills over the past 60 years, cementing him as a living legend. Many of Former's shapes are traditionally-inclined and turned on lathes, but he does make a number of imaginative Freehands as well. Furthermore, every Former pipe features impeccable engineering to ensure a superb smoke.

This Acorn by Former is an excellent showcase of his immaculate sense of proportion. The robust bowl urges forward at the fore, its bulging walls forming a near-perfect sphere. Furthermore, the fore starts an unbroken arc that sweeps the length of the profile's underside, uniting the the stummel with a cohesive gestural silhouette. Additionally, the stummel is dressed in a rustic sandblast, highlighting concentric circles of ring grain that radiate outward from the pipe's nadir in a walnut stain, while the chamfered rim is left smooth for contrast. Out back, the shank rises to a creamy band of ivorite, complementing the subtle bright outcroppings speckled throughout the stummel. The composition is topped off with a jet-black vulcanite stem that demurely bends back to parallel, completing the graceful profile and offering a comfortable clench.