Smooth Brown Bent Dublin (Two Jellyfish) Tobacco Pipe

Ser Jacopo alum Simone Gaudenzi is well-trained in the Pesaro school of pipe making, which emphasizes clean lines and panache in design. Today, Gaudenzi crafts Valbruna pipes in the small town of Gabicce Mare on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, which plays an important role in the company's nomenclature: per Adriatic legend, Valbruna is a lost, sunken city like Atlantis. Gaudenzi ages the briar for his pipes, which are produced in limited quantities. True to his maritime roots, he uses jellyfish to identify levels of quality.

Simone awarded this bent Dublin two jellyfish, and it's easy to see why. Flame grain tightly follows the contours of the canted bowl, which is topped with smooth plateau and meets the heel with a significant point. The shank backs up the bowl in an intriguing manner; when it meets the stem, it forms a diamond, but top and bottom feature flat surfaces that flare outward as they run to meet the back of the bowl and the heel. The stem is a saddle-style length of black acrylic, pushing this piece just past six inches in length when it reaches the bit. Simone's brilliant shaping makes this a worthwhile take on the classic bent Dublin, and his choice of smooth finish allows the grain to be appreciated properly.