Sam Cui Smooth Blowfish Handmade Estate Briar Pipe, Chinese Estates [SOLD]

Description

For a long time, it was very difficult being a high-grade, artisan pipe-maker from China, as Sam Cui is. China is, after all, a world leader in manufacturing for most consumer goods, but questions as to the quality of these goods have a tendency to spill over onto small-scale ventures, including artisan pipe-making. However, as the now-celebrated Chinese artisan Yang Kun once said in an interview with SATX Pipe, figures such as Sam Cui helped change that perception drastically, with many Chinese artisans today being held in equal regard to their North American, European, or Japanese counterparts.

From the perspective of manufacture, there are upsides and downsides specific to each pipe shape. A billiard can be easily replicated, but there’s very little you can add to it to distinguish it from other billiards; the blowfish, on the other hand, is a very difficult shape, but the absence of guardrails in the shaping itself also allows for more creative freedom in reinterpreting it. In the past few days of listings we’ve seen this freedom exercised in radically different ways by carvers from Adam Davidson to Andrey Kharitonov. And here we have something different again, this time from Sam Cui. Cui’s blowfish has the broad side panels and narrow cross-section typical to the shape, but it also incorporates a vertical flare at the end of its shank, adding to its aquatic aesthetic.

The condition is great. There’s some darkening on the inner, beveled lip of the rim, but nothing that isn’t cosmetic.

 

Details:

Length: 5″ / 127.0mm

Bowl Width: 0.74 / 18.79mm

Bowl Depth: 1.4″ / 35.56mm

Weight: 1.4oz / 40g