Smooth Sleeping Fish Tobacco Pipe

The original Fish design is an iconic pipe shape from Lars Ivarsson, and it's defined by a rounded, Egg-like bowl accompanied by a curling, teardrop shank. His daughter, Nanna, now an equally respected artisan carver in her own right, has developed a specific Fish rendition, dubbed the Sleeping Fish. In Nanna's Sleeping variation, the shank curls all the way back, connecting to the bowl's aft for a striking, transition-less shape. It's a design that's been expanded upon and rendered by other carvers, and Alex Florov presents his own take on the commemorative shape in this piece.

Instead of curling back, the shank in this Florov interpretation is more splayed and fanning, tilting at an angle to promote asymmetry and change the perspective of the pipe depending on the angle from which it's viewed. The shank's long face comes to a dramatic point at both ends, with the lower edge informing the shape's iconic teardrop line. That hard ridge travels through the underside, up the fore, and all the way to the rim, contrasting the bowl's supple curves and adding subtle texture in hand. Especially of note is how Alex has allowed the briar's grain to inform the piece's shape — plateau marks the shank face, echoed by portions along the rim, and vertical grain covers the plump bowl while parallel striations along the shank perfectly follow its "fin-like" disposition.