Michael Parks 2005 GKCPC Best in Show Giant Blowfish w/ Brazilian Rosewood Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

What Canada lacks in quantity in pipe makers it most certainly makes up for in quality. From the Blatter family, to Julius Vesz, to Todd Bannard, Stephen Downie, Eugene Miscoi, and others, Canada continues to be home to a significant number of extremely talented and acclaimed artisan carvers. Among the most acclaimed is Michael Parks of Bowmanville, Ontario. As a teenager, Parks was introduced to pipe smoking by his grandfather, which also served as a gateway to a lifelong admiration for classic pipe shapes. Not long after, Parks undertook college studies in fine art, which would have a similarly formative effect on his approach to pipe design. Mentored by Lee Von Erck, Parks emerged in the early 2000s as nothing less than a pipe making sensation, equally renowned for his immaculate renditions of 20th century staples and his unique, sculptural pieces, ranging from the delicate and ornate to the bombastic and avant-garde. Parks has held onto his position in the upper echelons of artisan pipes for many years now, with no sign of this changing anytime soon.

Speaking of art and the avant-garde, here he has a rather special example of one of a Michael Parks pipe, even by his standards. Made in 2005 and showcased at the Greater Kansas City Pipe Club, where it was presented for consideration for Best Pipe in Show, Parks himself termed it a “Giant Blowfish.” Taking a decidedly asymmetric, Japanese-style approach to the shape, it is indeed exceptionally large, and features something not typically seen on blowfishes of any kind: rustication. It’s almost strange to say, but blowfish shapes—despite their thorny namesake—are rarely rusticated, let alone carved in this manner. The finish in question is Park’s Coral rustication, a suitably tactile take on the famous Italian finishing style. Quite ingeniously, the pipe’s partial rustication has been applied at the “outer” face of the root structure, simultaneously acting as a form of faux plateaux, i.e., the sharp expression of the root fibers that lead to it. That the pipe itself won the GCKPC Best in Show award is not surprising in the least, though I imagine it still faced stiff competition. As for Parks’ own assessment, the pipe received a grade V, the highest attainable by any Parks Pipe prior to 2007.

This pipe is completely unsmoked. It comes with its original sleeve and the GKCPC Best in Show trophy it received all those decades ago.

Details:

Length: 8.5″ / 215.9mm

Bowl Width: 0.89 / 22.60mm

Bowl Depth: 1.21″ / 30.73mm

Weight: 3.9oz / 112g