Sandblasted Morta Devil Anse Tobacco Pipe

There are by now quite a lot of Devil Anses out there; this shape simply has taken off. The thing is, as you might have well expected, its sudden popularity meant many artisans not just making Devil Anses, but making their own Devil Anses, as in their own interpretations of the pipe seen clenched between Kevin Costner's teeth in the Hatfields & McCoys mini-series. This is well and good for the most part; the world, or at least the pipe-world, would be a duller place if artisans didn't do that sort of thing as a rule. It has, however, made a more direct Devil Anse harder to come by.

Well if something closer to the original is what you're after, then Chris Askwith's Anses are the first ones I would point to. In terms of shaping Chris has changed little: the bowl form has been tweaked a bit, and the overall length is shorter. In regards to the latter, from the photos I've seen, Costner-in-character was often clenching his pipe quite a ways up the stem, so Chris's interpretation really just moves the bit closer to where the pipe in the miniseries was being held. The only major change of significance really is in mediums — the original Anse looks to have been all briar (which may explain why Costner clenched it where he did, rather than on the button), while Askwith's are made in various combinations of stem colors and stummel-mediums, including briar, olivewood, and as you see here, jet-black morta.

- Eric N. Squires