Sanblasted Cherrywood with Horn (Four Clubs) Tobacco Pipe

The most recognizable Becker Cherrywood shape is one that pairs a squat, fireplug of a bowl up to a pinched transition and a flared, wasp-waisted shank. This, as you can see, is not that design — yet it's still ripe with the workshop's signature shaping cues, with special emphasis placed on dynamism in profile. The sheer height of the bowl, paired with its strong forward cant and pronounced taper, really works to set things off visually, implying a striking sense of forward momentum when viewed from the side. Balancing that out, however, the high-set transition and elegant bend of the high-kicked shank and stem soften those hard lines considerably. Perhaps most impressive is that the towering form sits, and quite steadily so, on a flat surface — carefully balanced along a flattened plane beneath the base. Excellent grain here too.

- Andrew Wike