Italian Estates: Ser Jacopo Gem Series Bent Dublin (Maxima) (Granato) (Unsmoked) Tobacco Pipe

Founded in 1982 by Giancarlo Guidi, Ser Jacopo has built a reputation on crafting high-quality briars that are renowned for their robust proportions and playful shaping cues. The Italian atelier's style has since defined the Pesaro style of pipe making, each of their pipes imbued with a sense of character and reflecting the whimsical creativity that went into crafting them. Though Guidi passed away in 2012, his legacy lives on not only in the pipes he crafted, or the company he founded, but in the language of design that he helped to pioneer. Ser Jacopo's Gem Series is a unique one, using gemstones to identify its grading, all the way up to diamond. The line, in ascending order comprises Smeraldo ("Emerald"), Granato ("Garnet"), Zaffiro ("Sapphire"), and Rubino ("Ruby"), to Brillante ("Diamond") with this bent Dublin being graded Granato, identified by its tiny gemstone inlaid in the jet-black saddle stem. A robust and muscular pipe that comes complete with a single "Maxima" stamp, this pipe weights nearly a quarter of a pound and comes to more than six and a half inches in length. A wide transition leaves plenty of room to drape a thumb and gives way to a lifting shank and smartly curved saddle stem, this combination offering a comfortable smoking posture while keeping much of the visual weight at the bowl. Said bowl rises to more than two and a half inches tall and flares out to a vast rim crowned with plateau, one which surrounds a deep and broad chamber with thick walls. Dressed in a warm, walnut-auburn stain, the bowl here is wrapped with dense flame grain and more than showcases how it earned its coveted Gem Series designation.