That bent bulldog Royalton is my primo number one favorite among Dr. Grabow pipes. I have always greatly admired its shaping and how exquisitely it captures the bulldog shape without adding the bead lines. It is a factory pipe at a moderate price with the attributes in its carving and shaping of an artisan pipe, to my eye.
When they became somewhat rare about a year ago, I had the notion that their master carver had retired and that no one could quite master that shape. From what an earlier poster was told, apparently it could be the lack of proper briar blocks to do the shape.
Whatever the cause, it is still my all time favorite Dr. Grabow shape, and I now value it for its rarity as well. My next smoke is in the Royalton bulldog.
