Falling within the more playful and whimsical side of Tom Eltang's spectrum, alongside his Arne Jacobsen, Snail, and the infamous Knife shapes in regard to creativity and evocativeness if not exact form. It's always striking to see such eccentric pipes from Eltang, proving his broad stylistic range when compared to his sleek, minimalist interpretations of shape-chart standards.

While the Pierced Fish shape that Tom here plays off is hardly a new one, the Danish master has put his own unique spin on this iteration — with the majority of the pipe's length comprising a beautiful section of boxwood, diminishing through a taper as it pierces the lower section of the bowl and extending into a Cavalier-style vulcanite cap. The cap curls downward, and its bottom rests on the same plane as the bowl's two feet, allowing the pipe to sit sturdily upright, seemingly impossible because of its dramatic length.

The bowl itself is a near pitch-perfect Danish Egg shape with the exception of the aforementioned feet separating at the heel and calling to mind a fish's splayed tail fin. In profile, the bowl exhibits a graceful sinuosity, curving in S-like fashion, like a fish curiously swimming toward the surface. As expected from a piece bearing Tom's Snail-grade, the grain rivals the impressiveness of the shaping, with bands of cross-cut grain sweeping across both flanks of the bowl, delineating immaculate storms of birdseye fore and aft — all dressed in one of Tom's illustrious contrast stains.

— Adam M. O'Neill