Brebbia: First Calabash Plum Rocciata (1997) (9mm) Tobacco Pipe

Brebbia has been fashioning pipes in Italy since 1953, and while their shaping style stays true to many classic shapes, they're often embellished with flourishing touches — whether in finish, or proportions, or some other creative design cue. This First Calabash is among the workshop's most iconic, signature designs, elevating the classic shape with bold dimensions, elegant accents, and a comfortable smoking posture. Characteristic of the classic Calabash are its deep bend, arcing heel, and broad-flaring bowl, and historically it's been fashioned from gourd with a meerschaum chamber cap. This rendition from Brebbia, though, offers the iconic design in briar and with a standard chamber for modern smoking practicality. It maintains the Calabash's recognizable sweeping gesture, and it's accented with silver at the shank end and stem base, evoking the look of a spigot mount but with a standard mortise-and-tenon arrangement. This particular example is dressed in Brebbia's plum-stained Rocciata rustication and has been drilled to accommodate a 9mm filter.