Moonlight Pipes “Radix” Pickaxe w/ Bamboo 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.

Ondrej Bárta’s Moonlight Pipes are fascinating examples of what can be achieved by blending the old with the new. This bamboo-shank pickaxe, for example, recalls the kinds of designs that are at home in Danish pipe making, such as those of Lasse Skovgaard or Peter Heding. But his classically figural approach to finishing turns these already distinctive creations into something totally novel, with the closest possible comparison being someone like Paul Larrysson Hubbart. The most interesting thing about this pipe, however, is that the subject of its figural carving is the medium itself: briar. While Hubbart was famous for his “tree-stump” carved pokers, Bárta has here instead meticulously carved the bowl as a kind of cross-section of the tuberous masses that comprise a briar burl. This includes a condensed illustration of the myriad plant fibers that comprise such burls, giving them their characteristic grain, and which travel and fan out until they reach their conclusion—both figuratively and quite literally—in the form of knotted plateaux.

 

Details:

Length: 7″ / 177.8mm

Bowl Width: 0.81 / 20.57mm

Bowl Depth: 1.43″ / 36.32mm

Weight: 1.4oz / 42g