Sandblasted Bent Apple 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.

The bowl of this bent Apple is notably squat, fronted as it is by a bowl that takes on the traditional curves of an Apple before coming to an abrupt end with the flat rim at a point just above the upper edge of the shank. A rich sandblast draws out the numerous growth rings of the bowl, and a dark stain gives the stummel a sleek appearance on both the bowl and the shank, which is quite muscular and upturned into a tapered, bent stem of black acrylic. With the uniquely shaped bowl and a shank-and-stem arrangement oriented more vertically than horizontally, this is quite an intriguing piece for the bent Apple shape and a great work on Gaudenzi's part.