Italian Estates: Ser Jacopo Rusticated Billiard (R1) (Maxima) Tobacco Pipe

Giancarlo Guidi founded Ser Jacopo in 1982 after co-founding Mastro de Paja a decade prior. Based in Pesaro, Italy, Guidi and Ser Jacopo developed a distinctive aesthetic within the context of Italian pipe making. Earlier Italian workshops, like Castello and Savinelli, had drawn inspiration from classic French and English shape charts — only imbued with a certain Italian flair — but the referents of Guidi's pipes were rooted in his life experience and his passion for fine art. Over the years, Ser Jacopo's defining design style has become known as the "Pesaro" style, with other pipe-making workshops in the coastal city adopting a similar aesthetic, and it's often characterized by a certain playfulness; Ser Jacopo pipes are unbound in their shaping, often displaying gestural curves and creative flourishes. The workshop is particularly known for its Maxima pipes, which are among the largest pipes available, as well as the Picta series, which features recreations of pipes found in famous paintings by the likes of van Gogh, Magritte, Picasso, and others. The Insanus line exhibits pipes of illusory and enigmatic design, and those of the La Pipaccia series are based on pipes Guidi saw smoked by fishermen and other mariners around Pesaro. Though Guidi passed away in 2012, Ser Jacopo's team of artisans has preserved and continued his groundbreaking creativity, carving and finishing all Ser Jacopo pipes by hand in a wide range of expressive shapes in smooth, sandblasted, and rusticated finishes.