Ser Jacopo: Amber Delecta La Fuma Finché Tira Smooth Billiard with Silver (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. Ser Jacopo's La Fuma, "The Smoke" in English, line of pipes is the first tier within their smooth-finished pieces, and presents a good value for the grain on display, made all the more tempting thanks to its inviting mahogany stain. This Billiard displays the stain of the La Fuma series excellently, and it features additional detail thanks to its belonging to yet another one of the Italian workshop's iconic series: the Delecta. The Delecta line 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. The stylized shank and stem here are thick and hearty and pull the eye back from the fore, where the bowl rises out of a firm heel toward a broad rim, and balances the visual weight nicely while maintaining an impressive heartiness. The warm dressing of this pipe showcases handsome grain throughout, and the Delecta's arrangement of vibrant amber acrylic and silver lends the composition ample contrast.