Radice: Spring 2022 Retro Apple with Silver and Leather Bag Tobacco Pipe

The first of four season-inspired releases from Radice, the Spring, presented here, is a stout Apple of Nosewarmer length that's been fitted with a broad band of sterling silver at the junction engraved to showcase flowers, and it's one of 50 total pipes made for the series. At the shank and stem we see a gradual taper slowly diminishing the shank to its end, with the taper of the stem accelerating the diminution of the combination, resulting in an aft side with both plenty of slenderness and some interesting sloped shaping. The bowl is full and robust, coming to nearly two inches in height, with a supple rounding about all of its surfaces that makes it a dream in-hand, the mid-set waistline marking a slow taper to the rim. Dressing the briar of this piece is the Italian workshop's craggy Retro rustication — hearkening to the workshop's Bark rustication from years prior — its textural surface offering sublime texture, while the rim is left smooth for handsome contrast.

-John McElheny