Michael Parks GKCPC III, Rusticated Bent Billiard Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked [SOLD]

Description

Michael Parks is an artisan pipe-maker from Canada. Parks is renowned for his high-grade pipes, as well as for his ability to create traditional and modern shapes, as well as sculptural pieces that further blend the line between smoking instruments and fine art.

Canada may be less known for its pipe-makers than, say, the United States, but this by no means that there aren’t any. From the Blatter brothers, to Julius Vesz, to Todd Bannard, Canada is home to a good number of extremely talented artisan carvers. It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to judge which of them is the most talented, but I will say that Michael Parks currently commands the highest prices of any of his countrymen. This pipe, created for the Greater Kansas City Pipe Club’s 2013 pipe of the year, is a beautiful rendition of Dunhill’s famed LC shape; it is a large, bent billiard with a rounder than average bowl, along with a swan-neck shank and stem. Parks has added his own touches, such as a mammoth ivory band, a cumberland stem (as far as I know, no Dunhill-made LC ever featured their red-black resin, though I am happy to be corrected), and a granular rustication. This Parks is a grade III.

This Parks is also completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating.

 

Details:

Length: 6.5″ / 165.1mm

Bowl Width: 0.75 / 19.05mm

Bowl Depth: 1.75″ / 44.45mm

Weight: 2.2oz / 64g