Smooth Pheasant with Tagau Nut Tobacco Pipe

"A lovely mix of the obvious and the subtle" is not the most poetic string of words I've ever spun, but it did strike me as the most precise description of this Tonni Nielsen design. The obvious is in how Tonni combined (seemingly effortlessly) a very full-bodied bowl with quite a flat shank and stem while still coming out from it with a silhouette that's natural of flow and balanced neatly. The subtle bits are in the very slight sense of firmness given to the bowl, in the progression of the curve along the forward face and the angle of the rear, as well as in just the smallest dose of asymmetry played out by a gentle waver of the rim. Smooth as a whole and gentle of bend, the little bit of firmness keeps this shape from becoming simply soft in its entirety, while that little waver plays a dual part, both echoing the shank and stem and keeping this full-bodied design seeming lighter and lively up front.

- Eric N. Squires