Ser Jacopo: "La Pipaccia" Spongia Sandblasted Bent Egg with Silver (S3) (C) (12) Tobacco Pipe

Ser Jacopo was founded in 1982 by legendary pipe maker Giancarlo Guidi. The workshop cultivated their signature Pesaro style, which delights in dramatic flourishes and whimsical stylings, even more so than the already playful Italian tradition. Sadly, Guidi passed away in 2012, but Ser Jacopo carries on his legacy. The "La Pipaccia" line comprises pipes inspired by the pieces Giancarlo Guidi saw sailors smoking at the Adriatic Port in Pesaro, Italy, and they often feature unique, eye-catching shaping with sturdy, muscular proportions and striking accent work. This bent Egg is a far more slender shape from the line, and it's one that presents with an immediately apparent sinuousness through its silhouette. The transition is wide, and it gives way to a curling, lifting shank that tapers subtly toward an accent of domed silver at the face, which matches a similar accent at the base of the sleekly tapering, smartly downturned stem of black acrylic. This shank and stem combination poise the pipe for comfortable smoking and do well to balance the presence of the bowl, which stands on a sweeping heel up front. From this heel, the walls expand to a low-set waistline before making an easy, forward-urging taper to the rim, their trajectory interrupted by a trio of beadlines near the middle, with the middlemost ridge being wider and more emphasized than the other two. Dressed in a crisp tanblast, the stummel showcases handsome grain throughout, with rippling growth rings rising from the lower aft side of the bowl.