Moonlight Pipes “Ultra-Cavalier” w/Olivewood Handmade Briar Pipe, New

Description

While some pipe-makers take inspiration from the natural world, or from the technologies of present and past, few of them in the contemporary seek to represent these forms in their work. Czech artisan Ondrej Bárta of Moonlight pipes does just that, in a way that recalls the intricate, figural carvings of briar pipes from the turn of the 20th century. But Ondrej also departs from the figural approach of early briar pipes by combining it with high-grade materials and a careful attention to grain patterns that is far more modern.

The cavalier is a very old shape, belonging to a small, but not insignificant, number of briar staples whose origins reside in a time before anyone had even thought to use tree heather root as a medium for smoking. Instead, the cavalier emerged out of a style of pipe that first arose, it seems, in Europe’s Tyrol region. These pipes, now referred to as Tyrolean pipes, were typically made from porcelain, or from various woods in the region, and were characterized by their long, tall figure, which no doubt helped keep one’s smoke cool and provide places to hold the pipe other than its rather hot bowl. But one problem with especially vertical pipes like the Tyrolean is moisture build-up. Tyrolean pipes worked around this by either including a deep reservoir and an easily detachable bowl to periodically drain said moisture, or by having a detachable “foot” at the pipe’s base. It is the latter kind of Tyrolean that found its way into briar pipes, with the most prominent examples likely being the cavalier shapes of Anglo-French makes, such as Charatan, Comoy’s, and Dunhill.
In more recent years, solo artisans and workshops have produced radically novel cavalier shapes, from Rinaldo’s Pasqualon to Todd Johnson’s Ostrich. This one, from Ondrej Bárta, takes a slightly more traditional approach than his contemporaries, while remaining decidedly more modern than both the old Tyrolean and the 20th century factory cavalier renditions. It is a long, true cavalier, i.e., one that has a removable foot for moisture control, though this foot is cut from amethyst cumberland rod, just like the pipe’s stem. The pipe also features a shank extension, much like the cavaliers of Tyrol, though this one is turned from olive wood, rather than from the cherry trees and other native flora favored in centuries past. 

 

Details:

Length: 9″ / 228.6mm

Bowl Width: 0.78 / 19.90mm

Bowl Depth: 1.20″ / 30.48mm

Weight: 1.5oz / 44g