HS Studio Smooth Golden Contrast Acorn Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

If you’ve been keeping up with the world of Chinese pipe making, their artisan scene has been really taking off over the last decade. Like the great Danish institutions of old, many of these pipes are produced in artisan workshops such as Zhiputang, Qi Studio, and GH Zhang. Hong Kong’s HS Studio follows a similar model, with a team of expert in-house carvers crafting high-quality briars in a variety of styles.

I’m not sure that I’ll ever get tired of seeing acorn shapes in pipe making. Yesterday we had a Chris Asteriou Peewit acorn, with a clear yet highly original allusion to Sixten Ivarsson’s famous acorns; there was also recently an acorn/wasp hybrid from Ron Powell added; in the past we’ve had acorn shapes from Jared Coles, Peder Jeppesen, Viprati—and while they’ve all been different, they’ve all had that germ within them of that most iconic post-war pipe shape. This one from HS Studio is no different. It leans closer to the later Danish renditions, such as those of Nanna Ivarsson and Jess Chonowitsch especially, with a similar plumpness and blending of elements from other shapes, such as the fish shapes this one’s wide, furling shank end evokes. The pipe has good grain, a really nice golden contrast stain, and is all round a solid rendition.

This pipe is also completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating.

 

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.71 / 18.03mm

Bowl Depth: 1.57″ / 39.87mm

Weight: 2.1oz / 60g