Tao: Smooth Bent Apple with Antique Whale Tooth Tobacco Pipe

Though not as stocky as some of Tao's work, this bent Apple offers up a plump, full-bodied bowl with the sort of curve that allows it to tuck in the hand easily. It's been paired to a rectangular shank, its edges rounded rather than crisp, reinforcing the soft feel of the piece as a whole. Fitting to that, it's finished in a light stain that showcases the briar's natural grain patterns in a subtle palette; the mouthpiece serves to offset that light stain, however, offering both crisp, cool tones in the form of pale, antique whale's tooth, as well as the warmth of a cumberland stem. As a whole, this is an elegant piece, delightfully balanced while also being easy enough to slip into a jacket pocket or hang from the jaw.

*While the harvesting of whales is most often thought of in terms of the once widespread whaling industry, small-scale, localized whale hunts have been central to Faroese life since the North Atlantic islands were settled by the Norse, circa 800 A.D. With a climate and soil wholly unsuited to supporting life by farming crops, those who lived on the Faroe Islands learned to subsist upon pilot whale, sheep, seabirds, and fish. The rich meat and blubber of the pilot whale was (and still is) the most important, the annual catch to this day being divided communally then stored, prepared or preserved in Faorese households (in other words, you won't find it in a Faroe Islands supermarket, nor do they export any of it).