Sandblasted Morta Bent Stack Tobacco Pipe

A very Paolo shape, in a very Paolo execution — by which I mean, rendered in one of the "alternative" mediums, with which Paolo Becker worked more freely than any other artisan I could name. It wasn't just that any given batch of Poalo's pipes was likely to include as many mortas and strawberry woods as briars, but also that he didn't have "morta shapes", or "briar shapes", or "strawberry wood shapes". He had Becker shapes, and if you wanted, say, this tall, trim bent Stack with its pointed heel and flowing shank and stem in briar, or strawberry wood, you could find it. It was a familiarity thing I suppose, a matter of being comfortable enough with the working-quirks of an alternative material to tackle leaner and/or more complicated shapes in it. Over the past year or so I've noticed more artisans who occasionally use alternative woods producing trimmer and more varied shapes from said materials, but with Paolo our archives show things like, for example, mortas with slender transitions and long, fluting shanks from as far back as 2009 — some of the first designs we ever saw from him in this medium.

- Eric N. Squires