Mark Tinsky: Natural Bent Pot with Morta and Elforyn Christmas 2021 (Four Star Tobacco Pipe

Since 1983, Mark Tinsky has selected a single shape to represent his annual line of Christmas pipes, choosing the bent Pot for his 2021 release and dressing it in a variety of unique finishes. It's a crisp, stalwart shape, one that comprises a squat, muscular bowl set to a willowy shank-and-stem arrangement. The broad, slightly angled heel lends the bowl a gestural poise in profile, which, combined with the low-set transition and the trim proportions of the shank-and-stem, keeps most of the visual weight up front. The shank escapes from the transition at the base of the bowl before giving way to a gently downturned mouthpiece of acrylic. This particular example wears a gorgeous, honey-blonde smooth finish that accentuates tight bands of flame grain across either flank of the bowl, with two dark bands of morta encircling a white band of Elforyn at the rim.