Italian Estates: Moretti Smooth Bent Dublin (𝛿𝛿𝛿) (4) (2023) (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 diversified the design principles of the workshop to include the classic profiles of Anglo-French manufacturers and Danish carvers. This bent Dublin is certainly one of the more neoclassical pieces carved by Moretti, its bowl immediately arresting the eye thanks to its strikingly broad expanse. The rim here is a vast, curving arc of briar that's nicely chamfered into the chamber and sits atop dramatically flaring walls that rise from a firm heel. A tightly-knit transition then gives way to a sharply upturned shank that's met by a sleek saddle stem of demurely curved black acrylic, offering a comfortable smoking posture and a charming poise. Dressed in a light, honeyed stain, the stummel here showcases a wealth of handsome grain, with the bowl here striated by dense flame grain, the rim peppered with birdseye.