Sandblasted Bent Apple (Turtle) Tobacco Pipe

Though perhaps just as playful, this bent Apple is something of a contrast to the trim-lined Poker from Gabriele also going up today. Where leanness and height were the name of the game with the Poker, in this design Gabriele dal Fiume really emphasizes the shape's plump curves and hand-filling breadth. The near-spherical Apple bowl sits proudly at the end of a cinched, wasp-waisted transition, flaring out along the upward-flicking and somewhat abbreviated shank. That cinching really works to not only accentuate the overall curvature of the bowl, producing a cheeking effect to either flank, but together with the piece's charming stoutness, it also gives the shape's silhouette a bit of playfulness — balancing a lot of bundled energy with quick, sweeping lines and a good bit of curl. It's finished in a deep, dark, warm sandblast, unveiling an impressive ring grain pattern dancing around the stummel.

- Andrew Wike