Ser Jacopo Imago L2 Smooth Calabash Estate Briar Pipe, Italian Estates

Description

Ser Jacopo is likely the most famous contemporary example of high-grade, workshop-made Italian pipes. It also belongs to a very special tradition in Italian pipe-making, having been established by Giancarlo Guidi and Bruno Sordini after the two had left another great Italian workshop, Mastro de Paja. Together, Guidi and Sordini created a brand of pipes that reflected their Renaissance sensibilities – even the figurehead of Ser Jacopo happens to be taken from a painting of a nobleman from centuries past – one that would soon become esteemed for creating unique and beautiful tobacco pipes that smoked just as well as they looked.

As I’ve said in previous listings, the names of Ser Jacopo’s various pipe series come from Latin, owing to the make’s Renaissance influences. In this instance, “Imago” refers to the sterling silver mounting seen on this very beautiful, flame grain calabash. More specifically, it refers to the fact that there is not one, but two separate, silver mounts—one on the end of the shank, the other on the base of the stem—of essentially the same design, creating an enjoyable doubling effect. In other words, each is the likeness, or image (Latin: Imago) of the other. As for the other qualities of the pipe, it wears the make’s high-grade L2 (“Liscia” also being Latin, as well as modern Italian, for “smooth”) light brown finish and, judging by the “dot” stem logo, it will have been made somewhere between 1983 and 1997. Ser Jacopo subsequently began using the silver “J” seen today as their stem logo.

-J.M.

The condition is great. Some minor inner rim darkening, but the pipe has clearly been well looked after.

 

Details:

Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.80 / 20.32mm

Bowl Depth: 1.59″ / 40.38mm

Weight: 1.9oz / 56g