Sandblasted Bent Egg with Bakelite Tobacco Pipe

Sam Adebayo is an American artisan who first picked up a pipe as a teenager, hoping to emulate the look of Jazz greats such as Charles Mingus or Eric Dolphy. As he gathered experience with his pipes, however, this passing interest intensified and his smoking became serious, his shape tastes turning to the Anglo-French classics. Finding that he couldn't afford the pipes he desired, he began carving as many great artisans do, by making those pipes that were otherwise unattainable and smoking them himself. The first hundred pipes he made were for himself and his friends, and as he began selling his pipes, Adebayo has enjoyed a reputation for high-quality shaping, finishing, and engineering. His shaping style draws from a number of sources, such as Todd Johnson, Bruce Weaver, and Hiroyuki Tokutomi, though Sam's style shines clearly through each one of his works.

This bent Egg is a lovely, Danish-style piece that's complete with a compact footprint and light weight, its silhouette suffused with a gentle bit of sinuousness that offers the overall shape a touch of elegant poise. The bowl here is of a classic Egg shape, its walls sitting atop a rounded heel as they flare out softly toward a mid-set waistline, this waist lending the bowl a great place for the fingers to easily index. A touch of forward cant provides the bowl with some dynamic momentum, and this is balanced well by the wide transition's introduction of the lifting shank, its curling form leading to a junction that's here marked with a trim band of yellow Bakelite. At this transition, the shank is married to a demurely curved saddle stem of jet-black vulcanite, its easy downturn lending it a comfortable smoking posture. The silhouette of this pipe brings to mind not only the Danish style, but certain contemporary American renditions, its thoroughly rounded stummel and domed stem base ensuring that the contours of this pipe are on full display. Dressed in a crisp tanblast, the briar here reveals some handsome grain throughout, with the bowl covered in rippling growth rings, while the underside showcases blasted birdseye.