Werner Mummert: Sandblasted Morta Bent Apple with Elk Antler

What happens when you combine the mighty oak with the mighty elk? Well I guess that just depends upon how you go about it. Werner Mummert went about it by making a pipe — a pipe modern in overall form but with nods to the past as well.

First take the color scheme: black and white. This is a look that hails back at least as far as some of Dunhill's earlier dress-style pipes (before "dress-style" become so firmly established as black and silver, by, of course, the Dunhill Dress finish we know today). It provides a certain dapper-ness, yet keeps things warmer than the straight cool tone jet-black and sterling silver result in.

For a second nod, I'd point to the transition, and specifically that underslung, rounded way it extends to support the bowl. That is something you'll find the origins of all the way back in clay pipe days. I couldn't say when this shape feature first made its way onto pipes of other materials, but have a look at some of Vincent van Gogh's works and you'll find depictions of what do appear to be non-clay pipes sporting it.

- Eric N. Squires