Wolfgang Becker: Sandblasted Wasp (Wolf Paw) Tobacco Pipe

We may be considered "kind of a big deal" in the world of pipes, but let's make things clear: even those of us here at Smokingpipes consider it a particularly big deal when some Wolfgang Beckers arrive. The simple fact of the matter is that Wolfgang's a small-production artisan whose work is in very high demand. There's a good reason for both, and for both that reason is the same: concentration on quality of design and execution. His influences hail primarily from the Danes, and the works of Lars Ivarsson particularly, yet he has always taken those influences simply as that: influences. The works of others may inform his designs, but the final composition of form and line is his own.

Here that produces a shape that is seamless, yet that still maintains a clear definition of shank, bowl, and transition, with a gentle yet muscular arc to the first, a full roundness to the underside of the second, and an eager elongation to the third.

- Eric N. Squires