Smooth Bent Egg with Boxwood Tobacco Pipe

While he has produced a number of trim, slender-as-a-reed pieces, such as his bamboo-shanked Acorns and Dublins, Chris Asteriou really excels at these stockier shapes — employing that extra briar in the stummel to further accentuate the smooth suppleness of the design's inherent contours. While the Egg shape is one generally considered to be a lighter, leaner shape chart standard, this technique works quite well here, lending the bowl itself a more Brandy-like silhouette while scaling the entire composition up to stout, muscular proportions — in turn, leading to a firmer, more powerful stance in profile. Aside from the beautiful shaping, this stouter approach has also helped Chris showcase the natural beauty of the briar itself, with all that extra substance being put to work as a canvas for some very impressive flame grain. Stellar piece.

- Andrew Wike