Smooth Duck's Foot with Masur Birch (Diamond) Tobacco Pipe

With a shaping style steeped in the Danish artisan tradition, Peter Heding is among Denmark's premier artisan pipe makers. His résumé is elevated by tutelage from Tom Eltang, and Heding's quality craftsmanship is matched by his artistic eye, often drawing inspiration from masters before him combined with his own creative vision.

Dubbed a "Duck's Foot" by Heding, this shape is a special interpretation of the iconic Elephant's Foot design, marked by wide bowl flanked by crisp, cross grain-laden panels. Such a shape is born out of the briar's natural grain — the block oriented to showcase birdseye fore and aft and cross grain along the sides — and Heding has beautifully shaped this particular blow to its highest potential: The front is saturated in dense birdseye, and the flanking panels perfectly frame the briar's cross grain. Where he's departed from the typical Elephant's Foot though is in the shaping of these panels. Typically the panels' width is confined to that of the rim, but Heding extended the back portion to include the top of the transition, following the grain to best showcase grain's horizontal striations. A ring of masur birch delineates the transition from shank to stem, yet the stem base continues the shank's lines into a domed aspect that beautifully incorporates the hand-cut vulcanite stem into the overall composition. It's a more than fitting piece to have received Heding's highest grade of Diamond.