Partially Sandblasted Volcano Tobacco Pipe

Though Jared Coles' shaping style draws from design schools across the world, his work is primarily rooted in the American Renaissance and Danish classical movements of pipe making, though this Volcano is immediately evocative of the Japanese style of carving. Remarkably complex of line, this pipe is suffused with a baroque organicism that exists harmoniously alongside elements of firm geometry, creating a uniquely balanced and immediately eye-catching silhouette. The Volcano shape's iconic, broad base is maintained in this iteration, though it's isolated at the fore, rather than extending through the underside of the shank. This base is defined by a wrapping ridgeline that surrounds the bottom of the bowl, where the surface of the briar pushes out very slightly and comes to a softly flicking curl at the aft side, while a bit of briar on the left flank descends into a sharp point. The base forms a lifting heel at the fore, which pushes it into prominence as its walls make a long, curving taper to the rim from the boundaries of the ridge, with these walls rising to a forward-slanting rim that's dipped at the sides. From the smoker's perspective, the bowl is shaped in a clean-lined oval, with the heel's lift pulling the lines toward the fore in an easy taper that only adds to the singularly varied aesthetic of this pipe. Out back, the transition pairs the bowl to the shank slightly above the small curl at the base's aft side, and the shank itself reaches out with an expressive flare to a broad, lenticular face complete with a soft dome to accept the saddle stem. The shank's outline is delightfully asymmetrical, as the flare ceases fairly swiftly at the right flank, while the left's is extended, creating a face that angles toward the bowl and cultivates a stunningly active, momentum-rich silhouette. What's more, both flanks of the shank are framed with a pair of ridges, furthering the lively geometry of this pipe and forming a point at the left side, while the right terminates in a small, pointed panel. The stem's sleek saddle of black vulcanite keeps the visual weight at the fore, while its base is shaped to match the shank face, the paired diagonal lines complementing the aft side's baroque arrangement of ridges. Dressed in a warm, rich, partial sandblast, the bowl's walls showcase rippling ring grain flowing down their circumference, evocative of waves of magma cascading down the sides of an actual volcano. The underside is smooth and is populated by a vast sea of birdseye, its texture matched by the panels of the shank and the rim, with the shank's panes showcasing tightly-packed flame grain.