Bamboozled

From top: Chestnut by Jess Chonowitsch, Chestnut by Jess Chonowitsch, Apple by Michael Lindner, Pot by Jess Chonowitsch, Raindrop by Yuki TokutumiHere in Northern Virginia’s mild Atlantic climate, if you plant bamboo in our fertile soils it will thrive like a native grass. You’ll have a dickens of a time ridding yourself of it once it has established itself.

Vigorous and aggressive, it is said that bamboo groves grow so quickly in some climes that if you were to listen inside a quiet grove that you could literally hear its crackling growth. It just takes over.

It would seem that bamboo is as capable of taking root and thriving in a pipe collection as it is in the soil. While it hasn’t started crowding out the rest of my collection, I wonder if it might happen someday. My bamboo and briar companions are among my very favorite pipes. They are like women whose charm, character, and personality combine to make them irresistible - the kind that the longer you look at and touch them, the more beautiful they become.

A particular favorite pipe in my rotation is the little spaghetti bamboo pictured at the top of this post from the American artisan Adam Davidson. Its sandblasted walls, though thin, stay eerily cool and its thin, comfortable bit makes the pipe feel as natural as my very own teeth. My wonderful experience with this pipe led me to purchase both the black bamboo cherrywood and the smooth, bamboo pot pictured below. It may surprise you to know that I haven’t always liked bamboo pipes very much. Early on, I didn’t like them at all.

I remember my first encounters with bamboo-shanked pipes. Their scarred, knobby, and fibrous shank-scapes seemed awkwardly ill-conceived, like somebody tried to graft a cottonwood branch onto a magnolia tree. Worse, the more mesmerizing the briar grains were, the more out-of-place the bamboo seemed. With apologies to George Gobel, bamboo and briar seemed like brown shoes in a world of tuxedos.

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Love and Sara Geiger Reinterpret Bo Nordh's Bulldog

Ramses. Ballerina. Sphinx. These iconic shapes spring to mind when Bo Nordh’s name is mentioned. But Bo Nordh’s genius extended beyond the invention of memorable shapes, alone. His shapes also took the natural growth patterns of briar into consideration. Briar sings in his shapes.

Although they are not as well-known, Nordh also put his personal stamp upon some classic shapes like the Tomato, Calabash, Lovat, Nut, and my personal favorite: the bulldog.

Bulldog by Bo Nordh, Collection of Jan AndersonBo Nordh made one bulldog in this particular shape, a pipe that is in the collection of Jan Anderson, the author of the Bo Nordh book. That bulldog has haunted me since I first saw it. Remarkably graceful with long, swooping lines, the pipe is a remarkably unique interpretation of the shape.

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Mysteries of the Sphinx

Updated on Thursday, May 13, 2010 at 5:59PM by Neill Archer Roan

Updated on Friday, May 14, 2010 at 7:43AM by Neill Archer Roan

Sphinx by Alex Florov, Marble and Petrified Wood Stand by Martin Romijn. Image © 2010 Neill Archer Roan

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Of those inspired pipe shapes that have been invented over the last 25 years, none has fascinated me as much as the Sphinx, a shape created by the legendary Swedish pipe artisan, Bo Nordh. Someday, I hope to acquire a Nordh sphinx, though certainly both the availability of these pipes and the cost will stand as barriers.

Artisan Alex Florov, Image © 2010 Neill Archer RoanIn the meantime, I happily added the above-pictured Alex Florov sphinx to my collection at the last Chicago show. It was some three years ago that I learned that Alex shares my fascination with the Sphinx pipe shape. The one you see depicted above is the third sphinx that Florov has made. I had the opportunity to acquire the first, but the timing wasn’t right. The second is one of four astounding pipes (Ramses, Scarab, Sphinx, and Nefertiti) in an Egyptian set that Alex was commissioned to create by the New York collector, Eugene Smolar–a set that may be the most heartbreakingly beautiful pipe set that I have had the privilege to see. The third is now in my collection.

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Musings and Announcements

I leave for the Chicagoland International Pipe and Tobacciana Show about two weeks from now. I look forward to renewing old friendships and to making new ones. This event is more than a show; it is a reunion. Frank Burla and his team are to be congratulated. Mounting such a successful show is a big accomplishment, but creating such a strong network of communities is an even bigger task. When I see all these networks of friends and colleagues in Chicago–and rarely anywhere else–I’m impressed.

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