J Mouton Smooth Popera Poker w/ Mammoth Handmade Briar Pipe, New

Description

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.

Like a few other contemporary artisans, J. Mouton has shown an especial affinity for the poker shape. It may well be the epitome of functionalist design, typically being lightweight and compact and, of course, a sitter, which is in part why it has undergone such a revival in the last few decades. But there is another shape that has received far less attention, despite also being of a functionalist conception: the opera. Historically employed as a way to allow easy transport in a one’s pocket, the opera’s defining feature is its oval bowl, rather than the conical bowls found in almost every other shape. J. Mouton’s latest, signature design is a hybrid of the two which, at the suggestion of one of his customers, was named the “Popera.”
This Popera rendition is a little special. The grain is, of course, stunning, with its broad sides acting as a great conduit for bird’s-eye grain, and it features an accent cut from Mouton’s favorite fossilized mammoth tooth. But it also has a small “beauty spot” of sorts inlaid in the bowl, in the form of two overlapping discs of lighter and darker fossilized matter. Hence the name given to this particular pipe: the “Ecliptical Poker.”

Details:

Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm

Bowl Width (front to back): 0.97 / 24.63mm

Bowl Depth: 1.73″ / 43.94mm

Weight: 1.4oz / 40g