Design Berlin MARITIME Luxe Bent Billiard 112, era undetermined

This reference example is a smooth bent billiard from Design Berlin, the German workshop marketed under the db device, belonging to the maker's MARITIME Luxe line and carrying shape number 112. The stummel is cut from selected briar and finished smooth, presenting the classic bent billiard silhouette: a cylindrical, gently rounded bowl set on a curved shank and stem that drop the bowl below the line of the bit. The bend places the bowl comfortably in the hand and out of the smoker's sightline, which is precisely why the bent billiard has remained one of the most enduring shapes in the European repertoire since the late nineteenth century. The pipe is fitted for a 9mm filter, the format that dominates the German domestic market. The 9mm system, in which a charcoal or paper cartridge sits in an enlarged mortise between shank and tenon, is so strongly associated with German manufacture that its presence is itself a useful marker of origin and intended market. Design Berlin's designation of the piece as handmade and of selected briar situates it in the upper portion of the firm's graded output, where stummels are chosen for grain and soundness before finishing. Dating rests on the stampings: db Design Berlin, the MARITIME Luxe line name, the Handmade and Selected Briar quality marks, and the shape number 112. The MARITIME Luxe branding fixes the pipe within that named series of the maker's catalogue, but without a documented run of dates for the line the era must be left honestly undetermined, resting on the German estate provenance and the characteristic 9mm construction as its firmest anchors.