Ser Jacopo: Smooth Paneled Bulldog (L1) Tobacco Pipe

Founded in 1982 by Giancarlo Guidi, Ser Jacopo has built a reputation for 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. This Paneled Bulldog is an impressively stout piece that immediately showcases the brand's neoclassical leanings, with a massive bowl that immediately draws the eye and holds the vast majority of this composition's visual weight. A flattened underside makes this pipe a stable sitter, and it supports the bowl as it grows thick, flaring walls that expand to a high-set waist marked by a firm ridge. This ridge is not a straightforward one, but rather a myriad of smaller ridges defined by eight panels lining the lower walls, with their arcing peaks lending the waist an undulating, flowing look. From here, the walls taper swiftly to the rim, where they overlook a broad, well-insulated chamber, the breadth of the bowl handily eclipsing its height and making for a substantial feel in hand. Out back, a wide transition gives way to a short, tapering, square-shaped shank that's met by a sleek, comparatively lengthy saddle stem of black acrylic: the slender bit pushing further visual weight onto the stummel. Dressed in a warm, rich, smooth finish, the stummel displays handsome grain, with flame lining the lower walls of the bowl and a broad expanse of birdseye at the heel and rim.