Baldo Baldi Magnum Smooth Diamond Bulldog Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

Baldo Baldi was one of those rare and extraordinary pipe makers who, like Bo Nordh or Tom Eltang, was so highly regarded that someone wrote an entire book about the man and his work (that book being Il sono Baldo Baldi, by the renowned architect, author, and Italian pipe authority, Diego Morlin).

Baldi was born in 1947 and died in 2021. He was trained as an artist and an architect, electing to pursue the latter for his career but, ultimately, he would end up instead becoming professional pipe maker, which he remained until his passing. Not unlike his contemporary Claudio Cavicchi, Baldi’s pipe making was born out of necessity—a necessity for more pipes, to which most of us can relate. Unlike Cavicchi, however, who began making pipes because they took too long to arrive, Baldi’s pipe making was a result of simply not having enough money for the ones he wanted—again, something very relatable. When his local tobacconists saw the pipes Baldi had made for himself, they were so enamored that they requested that he make pipes for them to sell in their stores. All of this took place while Baldi was still pursing his architectural studies, but a momentum would quickly build to the point where Baldi’s career as an architect was quickly usurped by a full-time pipe making vocation.

Art, architecture, and pipe making are fields with significant degrees of overlap, especially with the blurring of the lines between aesthetic experience and practical interests in the 19th and 20th centuries. Architects-turned-pipe makers remain a fascinating subset of figures within our own industry, however, whether it’s Peter Matzhold, Chris Asteriou, or Li Zhesong. Perhaps most interesting is when a former architect creates pipes that have something of that prior career in them, as with this pipe from Baldo Baldi. One might consider it a diamond bulldog, as I have, given that it takes the diamond-style faceting of the shank found on a traditional bulldog and carries on with it as if it were a trajectory unto its own, with the bowl itself being faceted in that very same manner. This would already be an interesting choice, especially how well Baldi managed to situate the grain of the briar so that it would fit neatly into the partitions he created. But what elevates it from merely interesting to genuinely fascinating is that the pipe is also a sitter (or, a rocker at least), and one that, in being positioned as such, resembles a miniature dwelling. I suppose while it seemed, at the time, that Baldi had to make choices in his life over whether to be an artist, an architect, or a pipe maker, he was never really anything but all three.

This pipe is completely unsmoked. Very slight handling marks.

 

Details:

Length: 7.2″ / 182.8mm

Bowl Width: 0.86 / 21.84mm

Bowl Depth: 2.23″ / 56.64mm

Weight: 4.1oz / 118g