Notes
Articles
One note for each silhouette in the cabinet — where the shape comes from, what the geometry is, which Asikyan plates show it. Then the block, the stamp, the finish, and the stem. Every photograph is a pipe Levon made.
Articles on Asikyan pipes
Material
Algerian briar, and how Levon reads a block
Why Asikyan pipes start with Algerian briar — sometimes Italian — and how the shape is chosen from the wood, not forced onto it.
The mark
How to read an Asikyan serial
The stamp reads Armenia · Asikyan · Hand Made, then the serial. The first three digits are the count; the last two are the year. From 116/21 the stem also carries AL.
Finish
The smooth finish: when the grain is left to speak
Levon Asikyan leaves a pipe smooth when birdseye or straight grain is worth keeping. Stain in thin passes, a quiet sheen — never a plastic gloss.
Finish
Rustication and art carving, cut by hand
Asikyan rustication is cut, not pressed — honeycomb, craters, dragon scale, lattice. A surface closer to jewelry than to camouflage.
Finish
Partial rustication and sandblast
Smooth panels against rusticated flanks, or a blast that follows the ring grain. How Levon Asikyan uses contrast without losing the silhouette.
Shape
Billiard, Lovat, and Liverpool — the straight family
How a classic billiard differs from a Lovat and a Liverpool in Levon Asikyan’s cabinet: shank length, saddle stem, and Danish slimness.
Shape
Apple, bent apple, and the round bowl
The apple is a rounded bowl on a straight or bent shank. How Asikyan’s apples, including pierced-heel pieces, differ from a billiard.
Ukulele
The ukulele: a squat bowl Levon returns to
The ukulele is an artisan name, not a Saint-Claude stencil — a squat, wide, usually bent bowl. How it differs from a tomato, and the Asikyan plates from 2025–2026.
Freehand
Freehand and double-wall lattice pipes
Freehand pipes come from the 1960s Danish school. Asikyan lattice pieces keep an outer cage and an inner chamber — sculpture with a drilled airway.
Shape
Bulldog, Rhodesian, bullcap, and bullmoose
The diamond-shank family in Levon Asikyan’s work: bulldog, Rhodesian, bullcap, and bullmoose — how the bowl and the shank change.
Shape
Brandy and egg: tapered bowls, bent and straight
Bent brandy and egg shapes in the Asikyan cabinet — how a tapered bowl differs from an apple or a billiard, with plates from 2026 and 2024.
Shape
Dublin, acorn, tomato, and eskimo
Four more Asikyan silhouettes: the flared Dublin, the acorn, the flattened tomato, and the wide eskimo — what changes in the bowl.
Materials
Stems, Cumberland, and the jeweler’s band
Asikyan stems are cut in the atelier — ebonite as a rule, Cumberland or acrylic when needed. Silver and brass bands may carry Armenian petroglyphs.
Reverse Calabash
Reverse calabash: a cooling chamber in the briar
The gourd calabash is nineteenth-century; the reverse calabash puts that cooling chamber inside briar. Asikyan 445/24 is the plate in the archive.
Billiard
The billiard: the upright bowl most pipes are measured against
Where the billiard comes from, what the geometry is, and how Levon Asikyan cuts the shape in Yerevan — with plates and measurements from the cabinet.
Lovat
The Lovat: a billiard with a longer shank and a saddle bit
The English Lovat — named in the Scottish manner — and how Asikyan’s straight Lovats (492/26, 368/23) differ from a billiard.
Liverpool
The Liverpool: long shank, tapered stem
How an English Liverpool differs from a Lovat and a billiard, with Asikyan 441/24 — the Liverpool plate in the 2024 archive.
Apple
The apple: a spherical bowl on a straight or quietly bent shank
The apple as a French and English catalogue shape, and the Asikyan apples in the cabinet — including 423/24 at 130 mm and 39 grams.
Bent Apple
The bent apple: the round bowl with the bit brought home
What a bent apple is — an apple bowl on a curved shank — and the navy lattice 356/23 from the 2023 archive.
Half-bent Apple
The half-bent apple: a round bowl with a moderate curve
A half-bent apple sits between a straight apple and a full bent. Asikyan 392/24 is the measured example: 140 mm, 47 g.
Bent Brandy
The bent brandy: a snifter bowl on a curved shank
The brandy or brandyglass shape — a bowl that tapers toward the rim — and Levon Asikyan’s bent brandies from 2022 to 2026.
Egg
The egg: a taller oval bowl from the Danish school
How the egg shape left the English factory list and became a Danish silhouette — with Asikyan 444/24, the egg plate in the 2024 archive.
Bulldog
The bulldog: diamond shank, two beads, a tapered bowl
The English bulldog — and Asikyan’s measured examples: 381/23 at 155 mm, 426/24 and 432/24 from the 2024 plates.
Rhodesian
The Rhodesian: a bulldog with a round shank
How the Rhodesian got its name, how it differs from a bulldog, and Asikyan 463/25 — a morta Rhodesian, not briar.
Bullcap
The bullcap: a short, capped reading of the bulldog
What a bullcap is — a compact bulldog with a flatter crown — and Asikyan 401/24, measured at 118 mm and 56 grams.
Bullmoose
The bullmoose: a heavy, squat cousin of the Rhodesian
The bullmoose as a chubby, thick-shanked pipe — and Asikyan 420/24, a smooth bullmoose with rusticated panels and a brass band.
Dublin
The Dublin: a bowl that flares toward the rim
The Dublin as one of the oldest briar silhouettes — and Asikyan’s 2022 Dublins, 238/22 with bamboo and 232/22 with a stacked rim.
Acorn
The acorn: a rounded bowl that pinches toward the rim
The acorn as a twentieth-century catalogue shape, and Asikyan 469/25 — rusticated, ruby stem, gold mark.
Tomato
The tomato: a wide, low, flattened bowl
The tomato — sometimes called a squashed tomato — as a mid-century Danish taste, and Asikyan 419/24 from the 2024 archive.
Eskimo
The Eskimo: a wide Danish bowl, flattened on the sides
The Eskimo as a Danish-school shape, and Asikyan 274/22 — cratered plateau on the crown, flame grain on the flanks.
Bent
The bent: a posture, not a factory stencil
What “bent” means on an Asikyan pipe — the bit brought toward the bowl — with 465/25 and 223/22, two different bowls under the same word.
Flower
The flower: a freehand with a flared, petal-like heel
The flower as a Danish freehand outline, and Asikyan 360/23 — plateau rim, flared heel, Cumberland stem.