Randy Wiley 1985 Traditional Smooth Freehand Estate Briar Pipe, American Estates

Description

Beginning his career as a pipe-maker in the 1970s, Randy Wiley was a key figure in the new wave of American artisans in the late-20th century pipe scene – and still is today, nearly 50 years later. Wiley’s pipes might be characterized as American freehand in style; though he has occasionally made more traditional pieces, his work is typically freeform, often employing different types of hand-rustication for his various finishes. The average Wiley is large, rugged, and a reliable smoker, each having been oil cured by Wiley in advance of its by-hand manufacture.

Randy Wiley’s Traditional series pipes are a little more reserved when it comes to shaping than his more rugged, Danish-American freehands, though they are nonetheless—like all Randy Wiley pipes—still freehands, and should be thought of as “traditional” relative to the rest of Wiley’s portfolio (it was much the same, by the way, for Preben Holm’s Traditional series) This one is a kind of Zulu Dublin hybrid, with a distinctive, fluted bowl and a couple of Wiley’s signature, feather spot carvings. It also has simply magnificent grain, along with an asymmetrical plateaux rim—as I said, traditional, but relatively so.

The condition is great. Very minor inner rim darkening.

 

Details:

Length: 6.5″ / 165.1mm

Bowl Width: 0.95 / 24.13mm

Bowl Depth: 1.41″ / 35.81mm

Weight: 1.9oz / 56g