Kai Nielsen: Smooth Bent Pot (Jewel of Denmark) (D) Tobacco Pipe

A second-generation Danish pipe maker, Kai Nielsen is the son of Viggo Nielsen, who helped found the marque Bari in 1948. Kai Nielsen often spent time around the workshop in his childhood, and began working there at 21 years of age. Over 50 years later, Kai Nielsen is still making pipes. Nielsen makes traditional shapes with a classic Danish style, evidenced by many of his pipe's gestural profiles and supple bowls. Few pipe makers have more experience than Kai Nielsen, and his lifelong skill is evident in each pipe he crafts.

This bent Pot by Kai Nielsen possesses a muscular bowl, which features a high-set waistline that is adorned with two beadlines, and a subtle taper to the rim that hints at the Rhodesian shape. The bowl flares to said waistline from a crisp ridgeline that encircles the bottom of the bowl, paralleling the broad waistline and creating a defined profile. The shank enhances the profile further, as ridges run down both flanks and flow onto the stem, creating an unbroken arc that extends nearly the entire length of the pipe before the bit demurely bends downwards. This muscular rendition of the bent Pot is dressed in a vivid auburn finish, which showcases tendrils of flame grain ascending to the rim and an array of birdseye on the underside.