Smooth Jatobá with Mammoth Tobacco Pipe

MarTelo pipes are fashioned by Gustavo Cunha, and the Brazilian carver is known for a wide-ranging design style that showcases artful Freehands and stalwart classics alike. He's especially renowned for his distinctive Jatobá design, and his more traditional renderings often allude to vintage shapes from historic French and English marques. Along with an eclectic array of exotic accent materials, Cunha is also celebrated for his extra-craggy sandblasts and vibrant, smooth finish.

Named after and inspired by the fruit pods of the jatobazeiro tree in Brazil (Hymenaea courbaril for all you dendrologists out there), the bowl of Gustavo Cunha's Jatobá shape is quite tall and slender proportionally, featuring a Stack-like chamber within and rounded, tapering flanks from rim to heel. It's become a signature design from the Brazilian carver and, along with his pencil-shanked pieces, has come to define marTelo pipes. Each Jatobá design differs slightly in regard to exact bowl shape and general form, and this particular example makes use of a straight shank but angled toward the transition for a bent-like smoking posture. It creates a sleek and angular profile that calls to mind the design aesthetic of certain Danish marque's like Pipe Dan, but with a thoroughly organic and supple bowl. Acorn-like in silhouette, the bowl rises from a pointed heel into a rounded upper portion and a deeply concave rim that aligns with the heel spur and the shank's angular orientation. Cross grain divides the flanks into seas of birdseye, and the light, blonde finish is handsomely complemented by a hand-cut stem of Dijon-hued vulcanite and a visually arresting accent of mammoth whose hues match the stem and the stummel.