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COMMENT:
A necessary reminder before we start: This pipe is in the F3-ViP grade (by the way, "ViP" stands for "Vitaliano Posella" and not "Very Important Person"). "F" is Posella's grade to refer to pipes with Straight Grain, ranging from entry level (F1), though F2, and to the top, which is F3. The "ViP" addition is designed to grade that illusive piece, in the F3 grade, that has such exceptionally tight and uniform Straight Grain that it deserves to be set apart from the rest. In other words, and when it comes to grain, this pipe is of the highest possible Posella grade.
As you may know, I have seen many Straight Grain pipes in the past 15 years, and I have to say, without any reservation or hesitation, that the pipe you see here is most definitely among the best 5 I have ever seen. The funny coincidence it also happens to be the cheapest of those pipe, by a very large margin. In other words, this is nothing short of being one of the best pipe deals I have seen in my years of collecting and selling pipes.
I have taken so many pictures in order to show you the incredible grain as accurately as I can, and so I won't say much about it. I'll just say that it is a lot more stunning than the pictures can ever illustrate, and thanks to that wonderful brown-golden stain, no parts of the grain were obscured in any way. I'm sure that when they invented the term "Angel's Hair" to describe the finest and tightest Straight Grain there could ever be, they were definitely thinking of a pipe like the one you see here.
Now that we have paid natural the compliments it deserves, let's do the maker justice. The shape of the bowl is an elegant Bell, which is a fancy member of the Dublin family. The reason why I opted for "Bell", and not "Dublin" is the marked difference between the diameter of the bowl top and that of the bowl base; it measures 53mm (2.1") and 23mm (0.91"), respectively. That is, however, an only partial presentation of the truth, since the bowl is oval in shape, and it measures 53mx57mm (2.1x2.24"). While the pipe has a "Bell" bowl, it has a "Lovat" body. The bowl is 57mm (2.24"), while the shape is 59mm (2.32") long. While the shank is not as long as it should be if we want a classic Lovat "body", the briarwood insert, of the same color, that Posella added to the mouthpiece certainly does the visual trick by adding about 10mm (0.39") of length. What confirms the idea of the Lovat body is the short, saddle mouthpiece, a very important part in the equation. Of course, the Lovat also has to have a round shank, which is the case here; however, the shank is very slightly tapered starting at a height of about 20mm (0.79") at the bowl-shank joint and going down to 17mm (0.67") at the shank-mouthpiece meeting point. This comment cannot be complete without making reference to the slightly canted forward bowl. I have always found a slightly canted bowl quite attractive, and it becomes even more so when the bowl is slightly oval. Funny how it is with pipes. Before I started writing this comment, I was not even vaguely aware of most of the stuff I have written so far, and I'm sure whatever I manage to write from this point on will fall into the same category!
In addition, I have to draw your attention to another technical detail that is quite important aesthetically: the pipe "neck". Here I'm talking about that part of the pipe where the bowl and shank meet and together create a new, complete entity. The hardest thing for the maker to achieve when it comes to that part of the pipe is to make it possible for you to see the bowl, on the one hand, or the shank, on the other, exclusively, that is, without too much interference from the other, AND at the same time, and if you choose to, to see the bowl and shank as one entity that is integral and indivisible. I believe that Posella managed to achieve this toughest (and most necessary) of tasks. Finally (and I promise to stop), and thanks to the freehand drilling that clearly chose to utilize, the tobacco chamber is conical, and it almost accurately reflects the bowl shape. I kindly ask to refer to a pipe like this one when you wish to describe another pipe as Straight Grain, and better still, when someone describes or grades a pipe as Straight Grain; I'm pretty confident that if we do that, most of today so-called Straight Grain pipes will be re-graded and re-stamped!! |
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