Bent Billiard

The bent billiard combines the upright, cylindrical bowl of the classic billiard with a curved shank and mouthpiece. It is one of the most widely interpreted tobacco pipe shapes, appearing in the catalogs of historic English factories, Italian workshops, Danish designers, and contemporary artisans.

The degree of curvature may range from a subtle quarter bend to a deeply curved full bend. A gentle bend preserves much of the straight billiard’s profile, while deeper versions shift the bowl’s center of gravity closer to the smoker and create a more compact silhouette. Bowl height, shank thickness, and stem curvature vary considerably, producing everything from lightweight semi-bents to muscular Peterson System pipes and substantial magnum designs.

Its apparent simplicity places considerable importance on proportion and engineering. The transition from bowl to shank must remain visually balanced, while the airway must pass cleanly through the curved construction. MBSD’s changing selection includes new, estate, and unsmoked estate bent billiard pipes in briar, meerschaum, and other materials, with smooth, sandblasted, rusticated, and carved finishes. New listings are released nightly at 9 p.m. Eastern.