Smith House Partially Sandblasted Oval Shank Dublin Handmade Briar Pipe, New

Description

Taking their name from architect Richard Meier’s avant-garde homestead just off the Long Island Sound, Smith House Pipes are the creation of New York artisan Rich Rosselli. Like the Danish-American functionalists before him, Rosselli excels at creating modernized renditions of tried-and-true, traditional, Anglo-French staples. This he combines with novel uses of color and ornamentation, giving Smith House Pipes their acclaimed, signature aesthetic.

While oval shanks are typically associated with Canadian, lumberman, and Zulu shapes, the 20th century was full of pipes from makes big and small that incorporated that motif into other designs. Whether it was Barling’s, Dunhill, GBD, or even some of the more traditional, early Stanwell models, the oval shank could be found on all manner of shapes, if one looked hard enough. More recently, classically inclined artisans have shown a great affinity for such shapes, thus rediscovering a somewhat overlooked thread in the Anglo-French tradition. This one, from Rich Rosselli’s Smith House, for example, is a very fetching, oval shank Dublin, one that’s been turned in a cross-cut manner to emphasize a rich bird’s-eye blast. As is typical of Rosselli’s work, the finish is subdued, but elegantly so, pairing a reddish burgundy partial sandblast with a matching, hand-cut cumberland mouthpiece.

Details:

Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.87 / 22.09mm

Bowl Depth: 1.73″ / 43.94mm

Weight: 1.1oz / 32g