Ser Jacopo: Calumet Sandblasted with Antler (4) (S1) Tobacco Pipe

A couple of the designs in Ser Jacopo's Calumet series share a common and conspicuous feature: bowls set atop shanks that extend forward past them. This makes them pretty obviously of Native American inspiration, as that feature of form is part of one of the most recognizable general types of ceremonial pipe, usually made from pipestone. For this Calumet-series design however I suspect the inspiration came from the Southeast, where clay-and-reed pipes were most common, and ranged from ceremonial effigy pipes to simple personal pipes (both of which would appear to have had an obvious influence on clay pipes made in the colonies and in Europe - some of their shapes were very like what we would now call Dublins, Cutties, and Belges). This design also shares a lot in common with the "albatross" briar pipes that were produced in France from the 19th through the early 20th century, where a section of albatross bone (here white acrylic) was used in place of a reed.

- Eric N. Squires