Ser Jacopo: Smooth Paneled Acorn with Silver (L1) (A) Tobacco Pipe

While we've seen this style of pipe from Ser Jacopo before, every iteration is quite different from the last, with this specific example being a paneled Acorn, a shape that's very seldom seen from the Italian workshop. I'm immediately struck by the Pesaro elements at work in this composition, with an extremely bowl-centric construction that places nearly all of the visual weight at the fore of this piece, the eye instantly drawn to plump walls surrounded by an octet of wrapping ridgelines. The chamber these walls hold is actually rather shallow compared to how large the bowl is, though it's fairly broad, and its thick-walled build sits atop a rounded, but sharply defined heel. The transition is mid-set, starting the travel of a trim, sleekly tapering shank that meets a ring of silver at the junction, married there to a similarly tapering jet black stem that's softly downturned. A warm, deep, chestnut stain dresses the briar here, revealing flickering flame grain throughout, its palette handsomely contrasted by the silver band and black stem.