Talamona for PCI 1987 Smooth Straight Dublin Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

Talamona is an Italian workshop situated in Italy’s historic pipe-making province of Varese. The make was founded by artisan Cesare Talamona, who oversaw production of Talamona pipes from its founding in 1970, until his retirement in 2007. Since 2007, production of Talamona pipes has been overseen by Paolo Croci, another Italian artisan, also known for being one half of the Pipa Croci make.

As with the other PCI pipes we’ve listed recently, this pipe has an important back story to it, so I’ll try to summarize that briefly as possible. In 1983, an American pipe collector named Bruce Spencer created a magazine for fellow pipe collectors, called Pipe Smoker. In tandem with Pipe Smoker, he founded Pipe Collectors International, a kind of pipe club that the magazine would be the publishing arm of. In 1984, PCI started releasing a yearly, limited edition pipe for its members, with the first being made by Preben Holm. And PCI took these pipes very seriously. Because they were meant to be collectors’ items, PCI kept a registry of all of the pipes that had been purchased, along with the member that had purchased them. If the pipe was sold on, PCI even asked that the previous owner contact them, so that their records of ownership could be updated, presumably so that a paper trail documenting the pipe’s provenance could be maintained. Ultimately, in 1989, PCI and Pipe Smoker were dissolved.

For the 1987 PCI pipe of the year, subscribers were given the option of choosing between a pipe made by Mark Tinsky and Curt Rollar’s American Pipe Smoking Company, or one made by Italy’s Cesare Talamona. This pipe’s previous owner chose the latter, and though I don’t think I’ve seen Tinsky and Rollar’s version, I doubt that the recipient of this one was disappointed. It is a beautiful, distinctly Italian Dublin shape. Stouter and broader than its traditional counterparts, the pipe shows off genuinely impressive straight grain surrounding its bowl, with a rounded rim that accentuates the bird’s-eye patterns that adorn it. As this pipe was made in 1987, it will have been produced by Talamona himself, as he would not retire from pipe-making for another two decades yet.

As with the other PCI pipes we’ve listed recently, this Talamona is completely unsmoked, and comes with its original box, sleeve, and letter from PCI president Bruce Spencer. There is a very small nick on the inner rim, but the pipe is otherwise pristine. Each of these pipes came to us via our consignment program, and to be honest I’m really grateful that they did, as learning more about the PCI project as a result has been extremely enlightening. In fact, I think we’re only one or two pipes short of having sold the whole set at one point or another.

 

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.89 / 22.60mm

Bowl Depth: 1.65″ / 41.91mm

Weight: 1.9oz / 56g