Lasse Skovgaard: Smooth Acorn Tobacco Pipe

A sleek Acorn from Danish artisan pipe maker Lasse Skovgaard, this pipe offers a sinuous profile and the softened, gestural shaping cues often present in Skovgaard's work. A second-generation pipe maker, Lasse is the son of Benni Jørgensen and polished his craft working alongside Teddy Knudsen in the W.Ø. Larsen workshop. He now produces fine pipes under his own name with an organic style all his own, as evidenced this Acorn example.

The bowl here flares generously, lending its walls ample curvature without centering the visual weight there, while the rim displays a near continuous curve as it comes around to a soft chamfer into the chamber. The transition is smooth and wide, sweeping into the shank as it begins its elegant, curling taper upward, the gentle diminution continuing into the base of its mouthpiece. Said mouthpiece comprises a jet-black vulcanite saddle that's sleekly-lined and demurely curved through the bit, the combination of shank and stem keeping the shaping out back softly sinuous and wonderfully gestural. A warm, smooth, walnut-hued finish allows the grain to sing, and Lasse has shaped the briar expertly to it so we can see clear, beautiful notes of flame grain on the flanks and birdseye packing the rim.