Rusticated Apple Tobacco Pipe

In creating his brand, Valbruna, Italian artisan Simone Gaudenzi has combined his two passions: pipes and the sea. Before branching out on his own as a pipe-making artisan, Gaudenzi worked under the mentorship of Giancarlo Guidi at the famed Ser Jacopo workshop. There, he developed a keen eye for design and a deep appreciation for the whimsical Pesaro style, which appears prominently in his portfolio to this day. Now the founder of his own brand, he imbues every Valbruna piece with his love of both the pipe-making craft and the sea, with his grading system heavily reflecting aquatic themes, and the brand name itself a reference to the legendary underwater city of the same name.

This Apple from Valbruna is a sleek take on the classic shape, especially in profile, yet it retains the bowl-centric proportions of the Italian neoclassical style. Indeed, the composition's visual weight rests firmly on the rotund, nearly spherical bowl, which crouches at the fore of a slender, cylindrical shank and lengthy, tapered stem. The stummel wears a craggy rustication, offering a wealth of tactile intrigue to keep the fingers occupied, with only the rim and end of the shank left smooth and stained a light hue for a brief flash of contrast.