Autograph Smooth Bent Dublin (0) (6mm) 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. Production of Savinelli pipes continues to this day, with its Autograph line representing the company's finest products. The line's incredibly high standards, including specially-selected briar, limit the number of Autographs Savinelli can make each year. Savinelli grades its best Autographs on a descending scale of 000, 00, and 0, followed by 8, 6, 5, 4, and 3.

This 0-graded bent Dublin is adorned with brilliant, straight flame grain that fans out to include the muscular, upturned shank in its reach, with all of the stummel smoothly finished and stained a lovely auburn for easy appreciation and inspection of the grain. The conical bowl is lightly rounded at the top with a wide rim of birdseye to add further intrigue, and the stem is a bent, saddle-style length of black acrylic with high shoulders. The canted, highly conical bowl that fronts this piece plays a vital role in its charm, but the sheer elegance of the grain that Savinelli's artisans managed to coax out of the briar is truly remarkable.