Kai Nielsen: Smooth Bent Bulldog (Jewel of Denmark) (B) 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 Bulldog by Kai Nielsen features a demurely bent shank-and-stem arrangement: the shank curves upwards into the stem, framed by a rounded curve on the top and a crisp ridgeline on the bottom. The acrylic stem is shaped so it returns to parallel but it never really bends downward, a superb example of Nielsen's outstanding shaping and line work. At the fore, the bowl rises from a broad underside and sharp heel, rising to a waistline adorned with two beadlines. The upper bowl is domed, arcing to a trim rim that encircles the spacious chamber. Dressed in a dark walnut stain, the bowl showcases swirls of birdseye on the domed upper bowl and wisps of flame grain on the walls.