Smooth Calabash Tobacco Pipe

Though there's certainly some substance to this Benni Jorgensen Calabash, I wouldn't call it muscular in style. That style usually entails things like a convex taper to the shank and transition, you see, whereas here Benni has made things fairly stout, but kept such aspects concave in the nature of their taper and curve; indeed, the transition might almost be called pinched, though that itself usually implies slimness and delicacy. It's an interesting juxtaposition between the mass that is kept present in the form and the lighter style of smooth lines that defines it. Likewise interesting is what Benni has done with the cap. Typically when I see a Calabash where the cap is shaped from briar, said briar is taken from part of the block taken from just above where the rim was cut, keeping the same orientation and more-or-less matching the main body's grain. Here, instead, Benni, I suspect, used a vertical slice of briar from behind or ahead of the bowl, making the top surface a display of fine, feathery flame grain.

- Eric N. Squires