Werner Mummert: Sandblasted Bulldog Tobacco Pipe

Known for creating pipes that often subscribe to unconventional, avant-garde designs, along with his bespoke sandblasts, Werner Mummert is among the most innovative carvers working today. The Bulldog has become a signature shape of the German carver's, the traditional form imbued with razor-sharp ridgelines and playful flourishes, as seen here.

This piece is informed by a slightly inflated rim, upon which the form's beadlines are presented. Rather than crafting them at about mid-bowl, as with classically designed Bulldogs, Mummert has moved them up right there on the rim for a playful, artistic flourish. The starkly angular and jutting heel is defined by panels riding up either flank, a continuation of the elongated, crisply lined diamond shank. Said shank appears quite sleek in profile; when viewed aerially, it appears to be wide, an oft-seen shaping cue used to great effect by the artisan. It's all topped by a plum-colored, abbreviated saddle stem of vulcanite, the base trimmed with a jet-black band, complementing Mummert's extra-dark, well-executed sandblast that covers the stummel. The deep blast brings out extraordinary ring grain, seen here rendered in tight, concentric stacks as the artisan is also known for his well-honed instinct in reading a block of briar and shaping it to best show off its grain.