Smooth Bent Egg with Boxwood (Signature) (1.17) Tobacco Pipe

With a single, sweeping curve defining the underside, this piece from Wolfgang Becker is robust yet handy, sporting no shortage of roundness about the flanks, despite its slightly pinched, oval-like narrowness down the briar's midsection. The forward-posed bowl tapers softly at the aft, leading the eye to a neatly-tucked transition and deep, upward-flicking shank in profile. From here, a pale boxwood wafer provides a bit of accent, followed by a trim downturned saddle stem with a domed base for something of a modernist touch. Finished in one of Wolfgang's spectacular contrast stains and a stunning gloss, vast pools of birdseye and neat lanes of cross-grain are the order of the day, with such a natural presentation as to no doubt deserve his "Signature" stamp.

- Daniel Bumgardner