G. Penzo: Smooth Meerschaum Billiard with Silver (A) Tobacco Pipe

An Industrial Designer by trade and currently serving as Peterson's in-house Pipe Specialist, Giacomo Penzo has spent much of his working life invested in crafting tools and instruments to work to their highest potential. Such skill combines well with his artistic eye to fashion beautiful pipes supported by long-lasting quality and exemplary engineering, and his personal shaping style runs the gamut from traditional pieces to more avant-garde designs.

A material that pre-dates briar as a pipe-making medium, meerschaum has been celebrated for centuries for its smooth-smoking properties and patination potential. Moreover, when wetted, the material softens, able to be carved into stunning, intricate forms. In the realm of handmade, artisan pipes, though, carvers rarely offer briar and meerschaum pipes in their portfolio: Artisans devoted to meerschaum rarely produce briar pipes, and vice versa. Such a piece as this, then, is a rare, rare pipe from Penzo. It features the same attention to detail and level of craftsmanship as the Italian carver's briar pieces, only rendered from meerschaum. The design remains classic, however, seeming a briar pipe in silhouette, but the pale meerschaum is on beautiful display across the design's stout and muscular demeanor. Penzo's choice for a hand-cut cumberland stem adds handsome contrast against the stummel, and a sterling silver band provides additional elegant refinement.