Ser Jacopo: Picta Magritte Spongia Rusticated Bent Billiard with Silver (R2) (C) (11) 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. Taking inspiration from the works of famous artists such as René Magritte, Pablo Picasso, and Joan Miro, the Picta line from Italian Workshop Ser Jacopo comprises several collections of artistically informed pipes. Each pipe in the collection is based on an artistic counterpart within the artist's work, bringing to life whimsical and evocative designs that were once static representations. This "11" bent Billiard celebrates René Magritte's The Two Mysteries (1966), a piece which expanded upon the artist's earlier The Treachery of Images, arguably one of the most recognizable depictions of a pipe in all of art. In this Ser Jacopo rendition, the Italian workshop presents a poised, Stack-like bent Billiard that is simultaneously robust and graceful, the bowl here drawing the eye almost immediately. Said bowl stands atop a rounded heel and grows tall, thick walls that surround a capacious chamber, its walls featuring enough curvature to offer a comfortable feel in hand. A wide transition leaves plenty of room to drape a digit and gives way to a lifting, softly tapering shank that meets the stem at an engraved band of silver, the stem's fluid curvature affording the aft of this pipe a flowing, gracile silhouette and comfortable smoking posture. The stummel is dressed in a craggy, texture-rich rustication and stained a warm, light hue that gives it plenty of potential for future patination.