Jared Coles: Rusticated Billiard Tobacco Pipe

For eight years, Jared Coles worked with John Klose on the J&J brand of artisan pipes before the duo decided to pursue their crafts separately. Now, Coles makes pipe under his own name, and he fashions traditional shapes with as much vigor and specificity as he does his more creative, organic work. This Billiard hews closer to the more conservative end of Coles' shaping spectrum, but it still retains the Danish shaping cues he favors. It's quite a compact design, measuring less than five inches from end to end, but it still boasts a relatively tall bowl with a healthy chamber capacity, making it an ideal pipe for on-the-go smoking. The cheeked transition accentuates the slightly plump heel and draws attention to the bowl's subtle upward taper toward the rim. The overall design is soft of line and relatively streamlined in appearance, with the sleek, low-set shank-and-stem arrangement providing balance while maintaining a fairly minimilist presence within the broader composition. A dark, craggy rustication dresses the stummel and provides a stimulating texture to entice the fingers, while a tapered stem of cumberland tops off the shape and adds a touch of color to the pipe in profile.