German carver Werner Mummert is well known for his innovation in design and skill in precise execution, and this Poker makes excellent use of innovative approach — providing reverse Calabash engineering with a clear, tempered glass shank extending from shank to stem. While the reverse calabash design is hardly a new one, the glass shank is a novel touch, both allowing the condensation to occur in shank (and thus removing the need for a bulky chamber at the rear) and permitting the visual experience of watching wisps of smoke stream through.

Finished with a superlative, deep and craggy sandblast matched to an exotic wood mount and jet-black stem. While the size of the bowl visually indicates a very deep tobacco chamber, the nature of the glass shank and high-set transition makes it somewhat more modest than a glance would suggest.

— Adam M. O'Neill