Brad Pohlmann: Smooth Speeding Tomato with Black Palm Tobacco Pipe

The history of American artisan pipe making can be divided into two distinct eras: The first, in the '70s and '80s, drew much from Italian aesthetics, as well as the Danish Fancy style, creating pipes of often bold, dramatic proportions and others with more wild, Freehand aspects. The second, in the late '90s and continuing today, brought Danish and Japanese artisan inspiration and techniques, expanding the œuvre with refined classics and intricate, avant-garde renditions. Brad Pohlmann is one of the few carvers to exist in both eras of American artisan pipe making, and his style has mirrored the trajectory of that stylistic history. His pipe-making origins began in the '70s, but Pohlmann took a hiatus until the early 2000s to pursue a career in the computer industry. Since then, though, he's established himself as among the most renowned artisan pipe makers in North America, producing work sought the world over and celebrated not only for its distinctive aesthetic bent but also its premium craftsmanship and unparalleled engineering.

Among Pohlmann's signature renditions, this Speeding Tomato design combines seemingly contradictory elements: sleekness and muscularity. The Tomato is an inherently rotund and stout shape, yet through his use of visual momentum and forward-urging lines, Pohlmann has created a design that's considerable in substance while still embodying a refined litheness. The bowl's fore is especially significant, curling ever so slightly forward at the rim to continue the aft's generous cant. Likewise, the oval shank maintains a trim profile before giving way to a trim saddle stem accented by black palm wood at the base. It's all dressed in a smooth finish to highlight handsome grain that follows each and every line Pohlmann shaped.