Italian Estates: Moretti Smooth Bulldog (𝛿𝛿𝛿𝛿) (1) (2019) (Unsmoked) Tobacco Pipe

Igino Moretti founded the Moretti Recanati brand in 1968 in Recanati, Italy, a small town with a rich pipe making history that stretches back to 1850. Igino actually worked for one of the town's largest pipe factories, before financial pressures stemming from World War 2 forced them to close in 1950. After many years, Igino handed off control of production to his son-in-law Marco Biagini, who has diversified the design principles of the workshop to include the classic profiles of Anglo-French manufacturers and Danish carvers. This Bulldog is a particularly neoclassical approach to the timeless profile, with a robust, hearty bowl and a comparatively slender stretch of diamond-shaped shank and stem. This combination is actually more slender from an aerial perspective than when seen in silhouette, and this places all the more visual weight on the bowl. Said bowl flares out of a firm heel toward a pair of beadlines near the start of the walls' taper to the rim, its thick walls offering a hearty feel in hand. Dressed in a light, slightly smoky blonde stain, the stummel here showcases a wealth of hearty grain, with flame grain wrapping the bowl and birdseye dotting the rim.