Ser Jacopo: Spongia Delecta Sandblasted Bent Billiard with Silver (S3) (C) Tobacco Pipe

Founded in 1982 by Giancarlo Guidi, Ser Jacopo has built a reputation on crafting high-quality briars that are renowned for their robust proportions and playful shaping cues. The Italian atelier's style has since defined the Pesaro style of pipe making, each of their pipes imbued with a sense of character and reflecting the whimsical creativity that went into crafting them. Though Guidi passed away in 2012, his legacy lives on not only in the pipes he crafted, or the company he founded, but in the language of design that he helped to pioneer. The Italian workshop's Delecta series is defined by its stylized shank end and stem base that often incorporate a combination of silver, acrylic, and briar. A swift, crisply defined flare out to the face typifies the shank end, while the stem's tenon or base is often extended with silver to provide a separation between the stummel and stem and add some elegant contrast. This robust bent Billiard benefits from the unique shank end combination, its tightly-knit length possessed of a lovely sinuousness. A rather wide transition gives way to a lifting, tapering shank before meeting the Delecta mount and its matching stem of saddle-oriented, amber-hued acrylic, its downturned bit lending the pipe a comfortable smoking posture. Up front, the bowl stands atop a rounded heel and boasts a muscular, softly tapering rise to the rim, the entire structure taking on a gestural forward cant. The hearty substance of this piece affords the stummel ample space to showcase a crisp tanblast across the briar, one that showcases plenty of handsome grain and is sure to patinate nicely as it's smoked.