Becker Pot - First PAD of 2016

I've had my eye out for a nice pot for a while here now, but they're usually so plain-looking, it's hard to find something appealing. But then this 2003 Becker sandblast went up on SPC yesterday. It was a little over ye olde budget, but I guess you all know how much of deterrent that is (or isn't)! I waited a few hours hoping someone else would buy it and save me from temptation, but no one came to my rescue and I was grudgingly forced to add a Becker to my collection. I also picked up a tin of the new Bengal Slices for the inaugural smoke.

Thanks for the kind words, guys. I have seen and admired many of the Becker pipes you all have posted and am happy to be adding my first to my own collection.
@Harris, I thought of that after posting and would tend to agree with you, it does look more like an apple or even a slightly topped brandy or something. I think it was those lines that made it stand out to me over a typical pot, but a pot is indeed what Smoking Pipes calls it. Maybe because of the width to depth ratio? The chamber is 0.84 in. wide and just 1.37 in. deep, although you wouldn't know it from looking at the profile.

@misterlowercase, great video and good eye! You picked out Dolphy in my avatar. The solo in that video really pushes all the right buttons (keys?). I've been enjoying some Jaki Byard lately, too, he's a great pianist although his playing is more on the restrained side in that particular video. Mingus sure knew how to pick his sidemen!

OK, so we've resolved that it's not a pot, and probably an apple, although I like the apple/prince description, @chasingembers. What I do know is that the thing smokes like a dream. It's an estate scraped back to bare briar, and even without any cake the thing smokes incredibly cool with an effortless draw. I tend to smoke very "wet," yet the chamber is dry after every bowl. I now understand what people are saying when they say a pipe "smokes itself." This is the second artisan pipe I've bought, after a Michael Kyriazanos acorn, and I will have to give some serious thought to scraping my pennies together and springing for only artisan pipes, which can easily be had in the $200-350 range on the estate market, rather than giving in to the temptation of having more pipes of a lesser quality, having now had the time and opportunity to compare artisan vs. factory-made pipes. There are many very solid factory pipes, and I love my old patent number Stanwells, but for me, personally, there's a world of difference.

Sp is wrong in their description, won't be the first or last time that happens. If it were a pot, I wouldn't like it, the fact I do like it means it is not a pot, simple huh. :lol:

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SP should hire you to do their write-ups and divide pipes shapes into two categories only: "Harris likes it" or "Harris doesn't like it." That would simplify things for the rest of us. :lol: