Mike Sebastian Bay: Rusticated Bent Brandy with Camel Bone Tobacco Pipe

Mike Sebastian Bay's journey into the world of pipe making began by chance when, in an effort to find someone who could restore his father's pipes, he came across legendary artisan Tom Eltang. The pair began to talk and, as they did, they bonded, and Eltang took Bay in as an apprentice. There are precious few in the pipe making world who can lay claim to a start as fortunate as this, and Bay is one of them, with Tom teaching him fundamentals and techniques of artisan pipe making. This act of providence gave Bay an incredible amount of practiced skill, and this bent Brandy is a good example of his shaping style, being a piece that is quintessentially Danish, refined, and deceptively straightforward.

This is quite a compact piece, measuring less than five inches in length, though it retains some mass, giving the squat bowl a substantial feel in hand while remaining fairly light. As I look at this pipe, the first thing that strikes me is the stem, as the expertly hand-cut saddle is married to the shank at a base accented with a trim ring of pale Camel bone, offering a lively bit of contrast. The shank itself is thick and curls upward gently out of the transition, allowing the demure stem to strike a poised, graceful stance, the elegant fluidity of the combination tempered by the pair's thickness. The transition's wide angle and serene arc toward the rim imbue the bowl with a subdued, yet palpable forward momentum, the cant pushing up the aft of the rim just a touch more than the fore. This push is further magnified by the lifted heel, raising not only that portion of the rim into prominence, but the entirety of the bowl itself. A low-set waistline visually halts the upward trajectory of the heel and creates a supple, plump base for the bowl's easy taper, all while fostering a wonderful surface for the hand to grasp. Bay is one of few individuals to which Eltang has taught his signature rustication style, and that supremely craggy style of carving is seen across the stummel of this piece, its surfaces stained extremely lightly to allow for future patination as the pipe is smoked.