Rinaldo: Sahara Calabash (YYY) (Titania) Tobacco Pipe

An intriguing Calabash from Italy's Rinaldo brothers, this piece presents with a look immediately reminiscent of the bent Dublin, its proud, tall bowl at the forefront of visual focus. This bowl rises to over two and a half inches tall and houses a capacious chamber within thick, insulating walls. The "Titania" stamping of this pipe is representative of its impressive heft and lengthiness, its total reach exceeding seven inches and its weight over a fifth of a pound. The shank and stem here ebb out of a tightly-knit transition and reach high as the briar flows into a demurely curved stretch of vibrant yellow acrylic. The heel area here is slightly flattened, offering an angular look that lends the composition a striking posture and cants the bowl forward quite a bit. Dressed in the crisp sandblast of the Sahara finish, this pipe displays a wealth of rippling growth rings contrasted nicely by its broad, lightly stained rim and sunny stem.