Smooth Acorn (5715) Tobacco Pipe

Our latest batch received from Nanna Ivarsson are three: one Fish, two Acorns. Though a quick glance could tell you the two Acorns are clearly related, being the same theme with different proportions and some altered curves, actually I would say all three actually follow the same theme. As far as Acorns go, this one and its sibling are unusually lively — and that liveliness comes from elements they share in common with that Fish.

The first and most obvious element is in the shanks and shank-faces. They are overtly asymmetrical, flourishing, broad — two of them just happen to be modified tear-drops ending in plateau, while the other (the Fish's) happens to be a more complex leaf-shape.

The second, less obvious element is how in all three pipes the use of asymmetry tapers. It is at its loudest where it begins, at the shank-ends, and quietest where the shapes end, at their rims. The Fish, being the most wild of the three, also carries the most asymmetry all the way through the bowl-form and to the rim. This Acorn and the other, being more subtle shapes overall, carry less — by the time you reach the waistlines of their bowls its nearly all confined to the presence of that single, low-profile ridge.

- Eric N. Squires