SU Pipes Sandblasted Shield w/ Bamboo Handmade Briar Pipe, New

Description

You may have wondered, as I often do, what would happen if professional meerschaum carver was to turn their attention to briar wood, and to make pipes out of that instead. While many early briar pipe manufacturers, such as Frederick Charatan, made just such a transition back in the late 19th century, both briar and meerschaum pipe manufacture have changed significantly in the century since, making for an interesting opportunity. Enter Sebahattin Urgan of SU Pipes, former apprentice to Eskişehir’s master of meerschaum Emre Bay and now an expert carver in his own right. Urgan’s talents have in recent years extended to handcrafting briar pipes, having been greatly inspired by the legends of Scandinavian and post-Scandinavian design.

In another SU Pipes listing from tonight, I talked a little about the rarity of new capital-“S” Shapes of pipes that arise from artisan pipe makers and become popular enough to be individually recognizable and informal models for designs across the global artisan community. The Shape in question was the still relatively young Geiger “BoDog,” which Sebahattin Urgan of SU Pipes had rendered beautifully in his own way. For this pipe, Urgan has put his own spin on another quite recent development in pipe shapes, albeit one that is less rigidly defined as regards form and nomenclature. This rising, broad-faced figure is often referred to as a “Shield,” for reasons that are fairly intuitive. But it is also sometimes called a “Cobra,” or a “Sphinx,” among other things. This is not merely misrecognition, as the Shield is, arguably, an evolutionary divergence from the “Cobra” shape, along with the Sphinx. In the case of both the Shield and the Sphinx, a pipe maker is able to take the signature bowl of the Cobra and radically modify the shank, allowing for even more unique and assertive forms, as in the case of this SU Pipes rendition. As this is one of Sebahattin Urgan’s more special pieces, it comes with its own custom-fitted case.

 

Details:

Length: 5.2″ / 132.0mm

Bowl Width: 0.82 / 20.82mm

Bowl Depth: 1.92″ / 48.76mm

Weight: 2.7oz / 78g