J. Mouton Partially Sandblasted Lily with Horn and Hidden Fossilized Walrus Tusk (New)

Born and raised in the small town of Gueydan, Louisana, Jason Mouton’s rise in the ranks of American pipe makers has been nothing less than meteoric—and for good reason. Having crafted duck calls since he was a teenager, Mouton’s first forays into pipe making began with carving tampers. Mouton’s unexpected and substantial successes with these handmade tampers encouraged and allowed him to purchase the equipment needed to create pipes themselves. Studying the works of renowned American artisans such as J. Alan, Grant Batson, and Jared Coles, Mouton gradually developed his own pipe making craft, which was furthered by his exchanges with Greek artisan Chris Asteriou. Today, Mouton’s works are some of the most sought after on the artisan market, a demand which he has responded to—and not unlike his beginnings in carving tampers—by reinvesting his successes into an unwavering advancement of his skills and technique.

As much as people talk about the fundamental functionalism of modern artisan pipe design, there is no getting around the extent to which these artisans have bridged the gap between the practical arts and the fine arts. Even Scandinavian pipe making would not be what it is if the pipes that came out of it were not beautiful, despite how little beauty itself affects the smokeability of such instruments. J. Mouton is highly accomplished when it comes to crafting pipes that are equally marvelous in form and function, and when it comes to the first—the aesthetic dimension of a pipe—he understands very well that there’s more to beauty than what is immediately apparent. Not unlike the great painters, he’s taken to “hiding” things in his works, in the guise of little secrets that one finds when giving a pipe the attention it’s due. This lily rendition, for example, is undoubtedly beautiful on first glance, but it becomes even more so when inspecting its finer details, such as a ring of fossilized whale spine secluded within its horn-extended shank end.

Details:

Length: 6.9″ / 175.2mm

Bowl Width: 0.75 / 19.05mm

Bowl Depth: 1.42″ / 36.06mm

Weight: 1.6oz / 48g