Micoli (Robert Burns) Partially Rusticated Freehand Sitter Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

Of all the artisans to have come out of the first, great wave of American freehand carvers in the post-war decades, Robert “Micoli” Burns is by far one of the most unique—which is saying something, considering his close contemporaries are individuals such as Michael Kabik, Randy Wiley, and Joe Mariner. He also remains one of the most celebrated, which is equally impressive given the number of high-grade American artisans who have taken up the craft across the course of Burns’ long career.

There are not many pipe makers out there who are as willing to flout established conventions as there are Robert “Mic” Burns. This holds in pipe design as much as it does in any art, fine or practical. After all, doing so requires making leaps and taking risks, which may or may not pay off, and indeed may entail reputational and financial losses. That Burns’ career has lasted as long as it has gives a good indication as to how that’s fared for him, however.

In the case of this Micoli, such is expressed in a pipe that might well be considered a “reverse freehand,” leaning into the conventions of the Danish Fancy, exemplified by figures like Preben Holm, before turning it on its head. While a hallmark technique of the latter is to hand-carve a finely grained bowl from plateaux briar, while positioning such so that the live edge of the burl erupts from the pipe’s rim, Burns has chosen to rusticated everything but the rim. The effect is one of a pipe that resembles the plateaux’s edge everywhere at once, save for a small section of smooth polished briar around the entrance to the pipe’s chamber. As with many of Burns’s pipes, this one happens to be a comfortable sitter, making for a work of “pipe art” that truly does stand on its own.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating, and comes with its original wooden presentation case

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.78 / 19.81mm

Bowl Depth: 1.68″ / 42.67mm

Weight: 1.6oz / 48g