Smooth Fish (04) Tobacco Pipe

There are Blowfish, and then there are Fish. As much as the former may vary from interpretation to interpretation, it can at least be called a shape, as in there are certain specific, identifying basic features to be found in common. "Fish" is wilder territory; look at shapes that have gone by this name from six different artisans, and you're likely to find six completely different forms. Where Tokutomi for example has made a shape that was very smoothly plump and tight-knit, here from Li Zhesong we find a design defined largely by panels and long lines, with roundness at all only really coming in at the smooth swelling of the underside (both at the bowl and, more subtly, at the shank). Li's design, it might be argued, actually bears a closer a relationship to the Blowfish, curiously enough — if you took the Blowfish and turned its bowl, as well as its usual grain orientation, and turned them on their side. Even so I'd say this design is very inventive (that is after all no small alteration), and it is definitely a great way to show off excellent grain.

- Eric N. Squires