Doctor’s Pipes Flash Grade Sandblasted Squat Tomato Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

Doctor’s Pipes are made by artisan pipe-maker Roman Kovalev. Based in Saint Petersburg, Kovalev’s pipe-making moniker derives from his sixteen years spent as a pediatric neurologist, and the consequent nickname of “Doc” given by his friends. Taking up pipe making in the early 2010s, and with a great deal of inspiration from Japanese masters such as Hiroyuki Tokutomi, Kovalev’s career underwent a meteoric rise that most artisans can only dream of. As one might expect from their maker’s background, Doctor’s Pipes are truly precision instruments; they are also highly inventive, however, with one of Kovalev’s innovations being the sandblasting machine that he designed and built as tailored to his own personal specifications.

So-called “squat” shapes are a both timelessly traditional and a thoroughly figure in pipe making. Slight and slender squat tomatoes and Rhodesians were a staple of early briars, especially in France, but squat renditions such as this one are more contemporary, with a rich history that began in the early post-war decades. As with many contemporary design staples, Sixten Ivarsson is their Edison; the “Ukulele” design Ivarsson debuted in the 1960s helped usher in decades of novel, artisan-led explorations of the horizontal plane that would have been unimaginable for their factory counterparts in England, France, and the United States. This tomato from Roman Kovalev has its precedents in later decades in Danish and Japanese pipe making, such as in the works of Jess Chonowitsch or Hiroyuki Tokutomi. Yet despite this history and these precedents, Kovalev’s reinterpretation is thoroughly idiosyncratic. It possesses the eminently organic bowl composition of its forebears, but pairs this bowl with two Doctor’s Pipes hallmarks: a short, stout, bamboo shank extension (complete with boxwood nodes), and a subtly flared, compact stem.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating. It comes with its original sleeve and card detailing the pipe’s specifications and authenticity.

Details:

Length: 5″ / 127.0mm

Bowl Width: 0.84 / 21.33mm

Bowl Depth: 1.2″ / 30.48mm

Weight: 1.8oz / 52g