Ser Jacopo: Smooth Bent Ball (L1) (A) (Maxima) 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. This bent Ball is an impressive piece, as it's part of the workshop's Maxima series, being stamped a single time with the designation to mark it as a larger piece than normal from the Pesaro carvers. The bowl here is immediately recognizable as the visual center of the pipe, with a decidedly ball-like shape that instantly showcases how this piece earned its namesake. Thoroughly rounded throughout, the bowl features supple curves and a mid-set waist, with a slight taper up toward a flattened rim, the massively thick walls surrounding a capacious chamber. A wide transition gives way to a short shank that tapers through the underside to meet a sleek saddle stem of black acrylic, one with a slight downturn at the bit for comfortable smoking. Dressed in a deep, rich, chestnut-hued stain, the stummel showcases a wealth of handsome grain throughout, with flame wrapping the bowl and birdseye across the underside.