Luiz Lavos: Natural Smooth Cavalier Tulip with Bamboo and Horn (Smoking Snake) Tobacco Pipe

Since 2015, Smokingpipes has held the American Pipe Making Exposition, a celebration of America's finest artisans who gather together a bespoke selection of their best work, all revolving around a central theme. For 2024, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Expo, Smokingpipes has expanded participation to include entrants from around the world in what will henceforth be known as the Global Pipe Making Exposition. Fittingly, 2024's theme is bamboo, the same as the first Expo, and it's an opportunity for carvers worldwide to show off their most inventive, innovative compositions.

Brazilian artisan Luiz Lavos often infuses his pipes with an elegant sense of poise and a precise softness reminiscent of the Danish school, and much of his work reinterprets chart-standard profiles, making this Cavalier Tulip stand out immediately. Easily the most dynamic pipe we've ever received from Lavos, this piece measures in at more than eight inches tall, and its presence is defined by an impressive slenderness through the shank and stem, coupled with a remarkable sinuousness in profile that comprises a meandering S-curve. The entire structure stands on a broad vulcanite foot centered directly over the transition, the foot a removable cap that creates a functional moisture trap for the chamber while continuing a flare started by a plunging length of briar that stylistically continues the shank. Said shank is remarkably short, and it lifts out of a tight transition to meet a long arc of bamboo, its seven knuckles taking on a gradual curve rearward as they reach high to meet a slender saddle stem of black vulcanite whose flared base continues the bamboo's rhythm. The treatment of this bamboo is subtle, but massively effective, as its surfaces display a great deal of organic detail, and each knuckle's nodule has been inlaid with a small dome of horn: the concentrated areas of contrast against the pale grass balancing the bowl and drawing the eye to the aft. The bowl itself is plump and bulb-like, growing its walls out of the transition with a mid-set waist and ample curvature before they make an easy taper to the rim, though the fore wall extends and curls subtly, creating a lip-like structure that's delightfully floral: likely inspired by the softly bowing petals of its namesake flower. The stummel is dressed in a natural finish that reveals a stunning pattern of grain, as flame rises through the shank and foot, while the flanks of the bowl are lined with fine cross grain and the fore and aft are awash with rich birdseye. A special pipe, this piece is made all the more special thanks to its grade, being the debut of Lavos' Smoking Snake stamp: denoting the highest grade within his portfolio and named in honor of Brazilian soldiers in World War II.