Ryan Alden: Sandblasted Fish (Queen of Hearts) Tobacco Pipe

Texas-based carver Ryan Alden is well known for his renderings of classic English and French shapes, often stylized with evocative sandblasts and sometimes adorned with colorful accents. That said, he occasionally fashions more figural, organic designs, such as Nautilus and Fig renditions we've received in the past. This Fish caters to that latter style, hewing toward the Danish design tradition in place of Alden's usual French and English fare. Historically, the Fish shape is a design pioneered by iconic Danish artisans like Lars Ivarsson and Jess Chonowitsch, and the form is typically characterized by a rounded bowl fitted to a teardrop shank with a singular ridgeline traversing one of the flanks — often extending into the bowl.

The exact shaping of the Fish and the trajectory of its defining ridgeline, however, vary across specific renditions, and this piece from Ryan is an especially compact version, measuring under five inches in total length for a comfortably pocketing profile and lightweight smoking posture. The bowl is subtly rounded, hinting at an Egg, and the shank expands dramatically from the transition toward broad face topped with an ebonite ring. Said shank is more subtle in its teardrop cross section than other Fish designs, being almost perfectly circular except for the slight protrusion of the hard line, which Alden has tastefully extended into the ebonite accent. When viewed from underneath, said ridge is positioned more to the left along the shank's underside, adding a dose of playful asymmetry, but as the line runs through the heel it becomes more central, rising up the middle of the bowl. As such, when viewed aerially, the ridge's resulting point at the rim is perfectly centered along the pipe's horizontal axis, contrasting the asymmetry of its position at the shank. A subtle but effective design cue, such an aspect adds nuance and individuality to this Fish from Alden, and it's dressed in a dark sandblast, drawing focus to the vibrant band of green-brindled vulcanite adorning the stem base.