Il Cerchio: Smooth Cherrywood with Mammoth Tobacco Pipe

Meaning "The Circle" in Italian, Il Cerchio pipes are handmade by Angelo Del Prete, who started crafting pipes in 2018 to expand the selection of his own tobacco shop's high-quality pipes. To that end, Del Prete dedicated himself to intense research on pipes and their manufacture, going on to learn shaping and finishing techniques from some of Italy's most renowned artisan makers, including Davide Iafisco and Massimiliano Rimensi. As an artisan, Del Prete draws inspiration mainly from the Danish school of pipe making, centering his aesthetic around elegant forms rich with dynamic curvature and momentum, though he is equally talented in creating classic Anglo-French profiles.

The Cherrywood is a shape very seldom crafted by Prete, though this particular example proves that he's just as skilled carving it as with the other shapes more well-represented in his portfolio. The Cherrywood shape is defined by its angular construction and often bent stems vs. the Poker's more rigid, structured build. Here, the classic profile is lent an extremely active style of forward cant thanks to its rearward-slanting heel and curving bowl, the two combining to offer a lively dynamism. Said bowl stands atop the heel proudly, the curve of its walls punctuated by a flaring growth to a soft ridgeline: This ridge marks a swift taper to a scalloped rim that's dipped at the fore and aft. As this rim rises higher toward its flanks, it extends the softly rounded contours of the bowl upward, enhancing the softness of the stummel's fore and contrasting the angular aft side. A wide transition introduces a trim shank that flows into a black vulcanite accent ring followed by a flaring fitment of pale white mammoth, its face angled rearward and domed. A sleek saddle stem of black vulcanite marries this trim length of mammoth and completes the composition, an expansion ring at its base further firming the silhouette. Dressed in a warm contrast stain, the stummel here showcases a wealth of dense birdseye on either flank of the bowl, the midsection striated by cross grain as the light tones of the mammoth lend contrast.