The Apple Family

The Apple family is the collective name for a group of classic shapes in the pipe repertoire that share a corner-free, rounded bowl. Apple sits at the family's core; Tomato, Egg, Acorn, and Brandy are all considered variations on the same soft silhouette, stretched and compressed in different proportions. What sets the family members apart, then, isn't ornamentation on the bowl but the ratio between its height and its width.

The Shared Form Logic

In the Apple family the bowl swells slightly toward the rim and narrows again as it approaches the base. There's no flat edge or sharp transition, and the join between bowl and shank is usually kept rounded as well. This geometry, unlike cylindrical-bowled shapes such as Billiard, leaves a spherical gripping surface in the hand. The fact that the bowl wall can stay relatively thick is also one of the reasons the family is chosen so often; in general shape classifications, the Apple family is accordingly discussed under the "round group" heading. For detailed terminology, see the pipe anatomy entry.

The family is made in both straight and bent bodies. In bent versions, the continuity the bowl forms with the curved shank is often preferred because it emphasizes the family's soft line.

Members of the Family

• Apple: The standard itself. The bowl sits close to a sphere resembling an apple, with height and width close to each other.

• Tomato: A flattened version of Apple. The bowl lowers while widening at the sides. It can be confused with a separately named shape found in some sources, Ball; Ball is regarded as nearly fully spherical, while Tomato is noticeably squat.

• Egg: Apple stretched along the vertical axis. The elliptical bowl is most often paired with a curved shank, giving the family's longest profile.

• Acorn: Named after the acorn. The bowl reaches its widest point in its upper half and tapers quickly as it descends; in many examples this narrowing leaves a slim tip below the bowl-shank joint.

• Brandy: Named after the brandy snifter. A bowl that flares from a wide base toward the rim, the family's most goblet-like member.

These distinctions aren't drawn with hard lines. The same pipe can be called Apple in one catalog and Tomato in another; this drift of shape names across manufacturer catalogs is a general problem detailed in the classification of pipe shapes entry.

Historical Background

Round-bowled shapes have been known since the clay pipe era; but the naming as it exists today became settled with the institutionalization of the briar industry in the mid-19th century. According to records, briar pipe production in the French town of Saint-Claude began in the mid-1850s, and by 1860 the country's factory count had reached ten. The hardness and heat resistance of the material made thick-walled round bowls — difficult in clay — feasible for mass production, and Apple became part of the core repertoire that settled in during this period. Exactly when the shape names took on their present meanings can't be traced with certainty from the catalogs. One reason the family remains popular today is its suitability for turning; another is that it offers a foundation open to free interpretation in handmade production.