Ser Jacopo R1 Rusticated Lovat Estate Briar Pipe, Italian Estates

Description

Ser Jacopo is one of the most famous contemporary examples 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 far as pipe design goes, you don’t get much more “Italian” than a pipe like this. For one thing, the shape stays close to classical Anglo-French conventions, though with an extra stoutness and a more typically Italian, unconventionally long shank, making for a very assertive rendition of the Lovat. For another, the pipe features a quintessentially Italian, pebble-dash rustication. Since the birth of Carlo Scotti’s Castello in the mid-20th century, Italy has held fast to something of a tradition of high-grade pipes in rusticated finishes. This is a tradition in which Ser Jacopo has also taken part for the last four decades. A last thing to note is that this looks to be an early make, from the mid-1980s, as it features the “coral dot” that was later replaced with a silver “J” (in part due to trademark issues, and in part due to the genuine coral used as an inlay becoming a protected species in Italy).

The condition is good. Some wear to the rim and slight finish fading.

 

Details:

Length: 6.4″ / 162.5mm

Bowl Width: 0.85 / 21.59mm

Bowl Depth: 1.72″ / 43.68mm

Weight: 1.5oz / 44g