Don Carlos XL Rusticated Lovat Estate Briar Pipe, Italian Estates

Description

Don Carlos belongs to a historic lineage within Italian pipe making. The workshop was founded by Bruto Sordini (along with his wife Rosaria), who had previously made pipes for Mastro de Paja, where he also met Giancarlo Guidi. In 1981, Sordini and Guidi left Mastro de Paja to found their own workshop, Ser Jacopo. After years of making pipes at Ser Jacopo, Sordini once again departed to found a new venture, as he had ideas for shapes and styles that were quite different to Ser Jacopo’s established design philosophy. Sordini therefore created Don Carlos as a means of expressing this vision, resulting in pipes that are both quintessentially Italian, and bearing aesthetic that is wholly their own.

I’ve said before, in previous listings, that Italian pipe-makers have a minor tradition of sorts regarding Canadian and lumberman shapes. That tradition being turning extraordinarily long renditions of these shapes. It’s not something that’s completely unique to Italy (Sasieni’s “Canadian” also comes to mind), but it’s more common in Italian pipes than anywhere else. From Brebbia and its “Iceberg” model, to Savinelli’s early shape 8004, to workshops and solo carvers, such as Mastro de Paja or Claudio Cavicchi, no other nation so consistently pushes the boundaries of the “long shanks.” Perhaps it would be strange, if they didn’t do it so well. This one, from Bruto Sordini’s Don Carlos, is an awe-inspiring eight inches in length, with a slender stature that would be reminiscent of a clay tavern pipe, if not for its obsidian-hued pebble-dash rustication. It really doesn’t get more Italian than this.

The condition is very good. Inner rim darkening and slight finish fading.

 

Details:

Length: 8″ / 203.2mm

Bowl Width: 0.90 / 22.86mm

Bowl Depth: 1.45″ / 36.83mm

Weight: 1.8oz / 52g