Smooth Bent Dublin Tobacco Pipe

Lv Zelong is a Chinese artisan who entered the craft with a long-held appreciation for pipes, pipe smoking, and the intricacies of pipe making. Upon beginning his journey as a pipe maker, Zelong sought guidance from some of China's foremost artisans, including Ping Zhan and Lan Zhenjun, while taking inspiration from both veteran Chinese artisans and Danish icons like Tom Eltang. Zelong crafts pipes that not only embody bold, forward-thinking aesthetics and incredible finishes, but that are engineered to smoke as well as possible and provide a consistently excellent experience.

This bent Dublin is a hearty, full-bodied piece with an appreciable deal of weight to its just over five and a half inches worth of length. Its substance contributes to a robust, muscular feel in hand, though that muscularity is reflected in more understated ways with regard to shaping. Much of its muscular look is centered at the underside, which has here been rounded by a wrapping ridgeline that flows through the shank and into its broad stem base. The shank itself ebbs out from a tightly knit transition and lifts dynamically as it travels, expanding as it does and meeting the stem, whose demure downturn works well with the shank's curve to offer a comfortable smoking posture and a touch of added verticality. The shank takes on an almost semi-ovoid look given its flattened underside and taller top, and the shank end's terminal height sets it nearly in line with the rim, visually balancing the two disparate ends of this pipe quite nicely.

Up front, the bowl sits atop a bold heel and flares strikingly to a high-set ridgeline that denotes the start of a domed rim, the ridge adding firmness while the rim's gentle contours maintain a softer feel. Dressing this pipe is a stunning contrast stain of vibrant auburn hues which unveils a wrapping array of dense flame grain through the flanks of the shank and bowl's circumference, the underside and rim awash with bountiful seas of birdseye. In addition, Lv has crafted this piece with a subtle bit of asymmetricality which sees the left wall of the bowl rise higher than the right, the outline of the rim turned slightly toward the right with the shank following suit. This offers a veritable wealth of intrigue for both the fingers and eyes, and further showcases his solid grasp on line work.