Ed Burak Connoisseur Smooth Bell Calabash Sitter Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

Known as the “dean of American pipe designers” Ed Burak was not a pipe maker per se. Rather, Burak was someone who worked with the master carvers of his time to bring his distinct ideas of what a pipe could be to life. As the owner of the Connoisseur Pipe Shop, Burak designed freehand pipes so singularly representative of pipe making as an artistic endeavor, that many of the resulting works ended up in New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

While Ed Burak’s designs covered a vast range of shapes and styles, two defining characteristics dominated his portfolio. One was large, tall bowls—often based on traditional Anglo-French shapes with exaggerated proportions—and the other was the steep curvatures they embodied—again, playing on exaggerated figures from briar staples. As a result, many of his designs were highly evocative of musical instruments, especially brass instruments such as horns and saxophones. This one looks to be a variation on the theme of the “bell,” another favorite of Burak’s, whose closest traditional analog was the calabash. Whatever Burak will have called it, this one is certainly an impressive pipe, though I can’t help but feel a little sympathy for the craftsman he tasked with realizing it. After all, it is simultaneously broad-brimmed, exceptionally tall, and a sitter, which can’t have been easy to execute. Execute it he did, however, and quite masterfully.

This pipe is completely unsmoked.

Details:

Length: 6.1″ / 154.9mm

Bowl Width: 0.89 / 22.60mm

Bowl Depth: 1.63″ / 41.40mm

Weight: 1.4oz / 40g