Jody Davis Smooth Bent Bulldog with Black and White Ebony (Cardinal) (A) (2023) (75) Tobacco Pipe

Jody Davis is among the few artisans responsible for the current success and prestige that pipe making in the US now enjoys. Throughout the '70s and '80s, many American pipe makers looked to Italy for pipe design inspiration or riffed off of the Danish Fancy Freehand style that was especially popular in that time period. The '90s and '00s, though, saw a shift, with American artisans utilizing shaping methods and design aspects of Danish artisans who had adopted and adapted Sixten Ivarsson's "shape first, drill second" approach. Jody Davis was one of those pioneering American artisans, and he has since inspired and taught a number of current American carvers. As such, much of today's American artisan pipe-making aesthetic is informed by Davis's personal design style, riffing off of the Danish greats he admired through the '90s and early '00s.

Though not even five inches in length, this bent Bulldog by Davis packs a lot of substance into it's relative small profile — the shank and bowl robust in hand and hearty. The shank is diamond of cross section in typical Bulldog fashion, but the resulting ridgelines dissipate at the transition to leave the bowl more softly curved as it flares toward the high-set beadlines. Most unique is how Davis has shaped the rim: Extra briar is afforded the fore to leave that section more broad and create a lip that juts forward in profile. Such a design choice continues the design's forward momentum, and Davis has echoed the motif at the stem base, with the split stem's black-and-white ebony wood accent rising strikingly at the top for second lip that matches the front of the rim. A stunning and cohesive composition, this bent Bulldog is a unique interpretation of the classic shape and showcases Davis's renowned craftsmanship and signature style of split stem.