Smooth Futurist Acorn Tobacco Pipe

This is the second Futurist piece we've received from Davide Iafisco. An art style that began in Milan in 1909, the Futurist movement featured sculptures and paintings marked by crisp line work, vivid color palettes, geometric designs, and a sense of abstractness, often imbued with dynamic visual momentum. Such an aesthetic shared much in common with the Cubism movement, but Futurism was built upon a social aspect — many Futurist artists rejecting traditionalism and instead admiring technology, youth, and urban industrialism. While Iafisco isn't necessarily championing that social motif in this piece, the design cues utilized by the Italian artisan call to mind the visual style of Futurism.

The aforementioned Futurist pipe from Davide employed crisp and rigid lines throughout the stummel. In this Acorn, Iafisco still uses hard lines but leans more heavily toward the dynamic and abstract side of Futurism. The teardrop shank positions its characteristic ridgeline at the right side. Instead of traveling all the way down the flank and into the lower bowl, as most pipemakers would orient it, the line curls up and over the transition before sweeping across the upper left side of the bowl, dissipating seamlessly. Furthermore, this sinuous hard line is actually fashioned with an ever-slender panel along its top, testifying to Davide's skill as a craftsman and aligning with the geometric side of the Futurist aesthetic.

Apart from this unique line work, the shape remains rather traditional — the bowl flaring from above a pointed heel spur. The rim is softly domed, kissed with plateau, and the chamfered rim echoes the rigidity of shank's faceted line. Yet another stunning pipe from Iafisco, this piece impresses with his talented shaping, and creative incorporation of an Italian art movement outside of pipemaking.