Manduela: Smooth Bulldog with Ebony and Cultural Amber Tobacco Pipe

A striking blend of classic Danish minimalism and sleek, architectural modernism, this Bulldog rendition is the work of none other than Manduela Riger-Kusk. The extension of the diamond shank's underlying ridgeline and lower panels makes for a pointed heel and faceted lower bowl that's come to define these Manduela Bulldogs, the aesthetic hinting at her tutelage under Poul Ilsted. This particular offering features a slightly taller bowl than her other iterations — the added height of the bowl especially drawing focus to the downward taper from the shape's characteristic, high-set beadlines. In these beadlines, Manduela's take on the shape differs from the work of many other artisans. Instead of the bowl's upward and downward tapers beginning at each beadline, Manduela has initiated both the taper toward the rim and the heel from the lower beadline, the one above, then, incorporated into the tapering rim. It's a subtle aspect, yet maintains the crisp, rigid motif that Manduela plays with throughout the entire piece. Every line is arrow straight and perfectly oriented here, rivaled only by the exquisite organization of streaking flame grain across the bowl and birdseye at the rim. To top it all off, the Danish carver has crafted the stem from hand-cut cultural amber — a synthetic and more durable version of organic amber — and accented the base with ebony wood.