SER JACOPO Fatto a Mano panelled

September 27, 2018December 13, 2018

Italy, 1980-90s

One of the early Ser Jacopo pipes (from 1983 to 1997) from Giancarlo Guidi, Pesaro, Italy. The stem is inlaid with a red dot and there are no typical letter and number codes yet stamped. Therefore we would claim the pipe is rather from the 1980s.

Story of Giancarlo is a great sample of Italian creativity, esthetic sense and openness to innovations. He launched his first company with partners back in 1972, and today pipe smokers around the Globe know and respect the “Mastro de Paja” name. In about 10 years Giancarlo Guidi and Bruto Sordini left the company (some sources say they didn’t like the idea to establish a mass market production of Mastro de Paja pipes) and founded “Ser Jacopo Della Gemma”. A bit later Bruto Sordini started his own project, “Don Carlos”, – another glorified name!

The pipe markings are “Ser Jacopo \ FATTA A MANO”, “PER ASPERA \ AD ASTRA”. The length is 15.5 cm (6.1″), bowl’s height is 4.8 cm (1.89″). External dimensions of the bowl are 3.8 x 4.0 cm (1.5 x 1.57″), internal diameter is 2.1 cm (0.83″). The depth is 4.0 cm (1.57″) and this pipe weights 58 gr. Briar, acrylic stem, no filter. We had to replace a broken tennon, and due to not 100% ideally centered air channel drilling (in the stem) it looks now a bit (about 1 mm) shifted to the left side, that’s unfortunately a common issue in such cases.

HARDCASTLE
HARDCASTLE’S Camden 42
March 28, 2021March 28, 2021
England, 1930-40s A moderately smoked and well preserved Hardcastle’s family era pipe made before 1946 and very probably – before WWII (during the War the company was unable to obtain briar for production as many others English manufacturers).
Read More HARDCASTLE’S Camden 42
H. SIMMONS
H. SIMMONS Burlington Arcade 619C
September 21, 2016January 7, 2019
England, 1950-70s H. Simmons was one of the most famous London tobacconists with a long history and very nice tobacco shop in Burlington Arcade. The pipes were ordered from different sources including the Dunhill company. In 1980 the business was acquired by Dunhill. We can’t confirm that exactly this pipe was made by Dunhill, but…
Read More H. SIMMONS Burlington Arcade 619C
BEN WADE
BEN WADE Hand Model
September 6, 2014February 1, 2019
England, 1960s A great example of the Charatan’s production in 1970-s at Prescott Str. factory! The pipe looks really like a work of art: slightly asymmetric panelled bowl is skilfully combined with an almost the stright grain of briar. It sits in hand very warmly, reliably and trustfully indeed like many free hands can’t sit. Thus no need…
Read More BEN WADE Hand Model
CHARATAN'S
CHARATAN’S MAKE Special 4 twin bore
October 1, 2017December 28, 2018
England, 1960s An extremely rare and very interesting Charatan’s Make pipe of their best period (“Lane era”), i.e. late 1960s – early 1970s, when the glory of Charatan’s eclipsed all competitors, including Dunhill. At these times the twin bore stems were quite popular as their buttons were better resistant to teeth pressure. But anyway, most…
Read More CHARATAN’S MAKE Special 4 twin bore
SER JACOPO
SER JACOPO Granato
November 1, 2019November 1, 2019
Italy The pipe from the ultimate highest grade Ser Jacopo “Gem” series. The series consist of 5 grades in ascending order: Smeraldo (Emerald), Granato (Garnet), Zaffiro (Sapphire), Rubino (Ruby) and Brillante (Diamond). Production of the Gem series pipe is extremely limited and the manufacturer’s web site warns that “Gem Series pipes are always in short…
Read More SER JACOPO Granato
... MORE ENGLISH
OXFORD De Luxe unsmoked
August 28, 2019October 1, 2022
England This unsmoked pipe became a subject of a special investigation. Many more and less known manufacturers applied the “Oxford” stamping on their pipes: Wilczak & Colwell mention S. MC Lardy, Sasieni, J. Redman, Hall & Fitzgerald, Carrington, Orlik and even GBD! Pipephil (the greatest and highly respected pipe expert) places Oxford on the Hardcastle’s…
Read More OXFORD De Luxe unsmoked