Knight Brandy Sitter (2025) Tobacco Pipe

Tonino Jacono entered the pipe business in 1981, finishing and selling pipes that were shaped by his brother-in-law from briar acquired and drilled by his father-in-law. After two years, Jacono left Calabria — the region comprising the Italian peninsula's southwestern "toe" — and moved north to Jesi, a municipality near Italy's Adriatic coast. Jacono began making pipes under his own name in Jesi, and still does today, with a philosophy of making high-quality pipes at a fair price point.

Jacono uses a grading system that follows the value of chess pieces: in ascending order, it goes Pawn (sandblasted), Knight (rusticated), Bishop (previously called "Jack"), Rook, Queen, and King. The bowl of this Knight-graded Brandy Sitter is especially round for its titular shape, giving it a profile akin to that of a squat, robust Apple. A craggy rustication dresses the walls of the bowl nearly to the rim and a short stub of the shank directly behind the bowl, giving both a dark appearance with intermittent flecks of reddish-stained briar. A flat saddle stem of black acrylic with barely-there shoulders finishes the piece.