Paul describes his pipes as combining classic shapes with elements of Italian design.

In corresponding with Paul, via email naturally, we each discovered a common viewpoint in terms of his pipe web site.

But at the time I wasn't aware of Paul's personality.

Stubborn, convinced that he is always right, and exceedingly tenacious, Paul not only expects the best from himself but from others as well. In brief, we were alike. Much too alike. What should have been a few days of graphic design turned into weeks and months of conflict.

A Roman column should look like such-and-such. No. Wrong column. Wrong color. Wrong background. Let's begin from the beginning. No, that isn't right. No, it can't be done that way. (Hey! You can assign any of the preceding to either of us. We probably each said something similar at one point or another.)

And so forth.

After another furious email session, we both found each other to be hitting the bottle.

In the end, the situation became humorous. We became good friends and between us produced a handsome piece of three-dimensional artwork, which you can see by going to Paul's pipe site.

I also received two beautiful pipes from Paul (although I had to part from one of them). The pipes look exquisite and smoke the same way. Neither needed anything like a break-in period. They smoked well from the very first. Do the bowls look perhaps taller than average? Paul did that because he knew I preferred flake tobacco, and he told me that flake tobacco smokes better in a taller bowl.

The man knows his pipes!
 

Note: The ivory in the stem is not from any animal. Paul is very ecological minded.