Mastro De Paja Classica Sandblasted Bent Dublin Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

Like Castello, Mastro de Paja holds a special place in the world of Italian high-grade pipe workshops. Founded in 1972 by Giancarlo Guidi, the MdP team was soon joined by Giannino Spadoni and Bruto Sordini with the Guidi and Spadoni at the helm of the company until 1981. Guidi then left with Sordini to found Ser Jacopo, and Sordini would later leave Ser Jacopo to found Don Carlos. Spadoni, on the other hand, stayed at MdP until he also left, after which he founded Fiamma di Re. Today, Mastro de Paja is guided by Alberto Montini, with the workshop being known for both the manufacture of some of Italy’s most admired pipes, and for having launched the careers of some of its most respected artisans.

While this Mastro de Paja is from their Classica series, I would be more inclined to call it a modern design. While it is recognizably a Dublin shape, the pipe’s oval bowl and acrylic faux-army mount seem far more contemporary to me. That’s not a bad thing by any stretch, though. It’s a great little design, and a fairly lightweight one at that. One particularly interesting thing about this Mastro de Paja is its sandblasting: instead of aiming for ring grain, bird’s-eye grain has been used as a base instead, providing swirling sandblast figures that almost look like vines creeping over a tree stump.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating from the Mastro de Paja workshop.

 

Details:

Length: 5.8″ / 147.3mm

Bowl Width: 0.83 / 21.08mm

Bowl Depth: 1.42″ / 36.06mm

Weight: 1.4oz / 40g