Savinelli Giubileo D'Oro Smooth (703 KS) Tobacco Pipe

Achille Savinelli set out to break the Italian government's monopoly on tobacco when he opened his own smoke shop in Milan in 1876. Though clay and meerschaum ruled the pipe market in those days, Achille had faith that the briar pipes he designed and had manufactured in Varese would make a breakthrough, and he was right. Briar eventually came to rule the market, with Savinelli's pipes being put on display at the 1881 Italian Industrial Exposition and continuing to be manufactured today. The original Savinelli shop still operates to this day a century and a half on.

This "703 KS," an interpretation of the Lovat shape, comes from Savinelli's Giubileo d'Oro line (translating to "Golden Jubilee" in English). The line's name reflects the incredible scarcity of the combination of grain and materials needed to produce such a remarkable pipe. Such are the standards that Savinelli estimates only 1 in 20,000 pipes in its selection meets Giubileo d'Oro requirements. To be sure, the grain on this piece is lovely, alternating between flame grain and birdseye with ease, all of it dressed in a handsome light brown stain and finished to a wonderful smoothness. True to the Lovat shape, the bowl is a straightforward, only lightly tapered billiard, the shank long and round, and the stem brief and saddle-style. It's a work of craftsmanship that only comes around very seldomly, and is very deserving of the Giubileo d'Oro designation.