Rusticated Bent Billiard (R1) Tobacco Pipe

Ser Jacopo's story began in 1982 when Giancarlo Guidi and Bruto Sordini left Mastro de Paja to start their own firm. In the spirit of the Pesaro school of pipe making that it helped found, the company takes traditional English and French shapes and recreates them in fanciful ways, taking an ornate, independent approach to the craft. Sordini left the company in the late 1980s to strike out on his own, but Guidi continued turning pipes at Ser Jacopo until he passed away in 2012 at the age of 64. Though without its founder, the company lives on, carrying on the traditions of the Pesaro school to this day.

To say this is a rusticated bent Billiard is somewhat of an understatement — it is indeed rusticated, all the way from shank face to the walls of the bowl and even including the rim; a bold, eye-catching choice on Ser Jacopo's part. The coloring of the stummel varies from a light orange on the surface to a deeper brown in the lower reaches of the rustication. The bowl is lightly rounded and tapered, typical of a bent Billiard, while the shank is high-kicking and muscular as it meets the heavily bent, tapered black acrylic stem. The lightly craggy stummel is sure to provide plenty of intrigue for the fingertips, while the stem is generously bent enough to make clenching easier, though the piece is quite substantial in its weight — just below one-sixth of a pound.