Steve Weiner 1999 Rusticated Dublin Estate Briar Pipe, American Estates

Description

Steve Weiner was an American artisan based in Cleveland, Ohio. While Weiner first began experimenting with pipe-making in 1989, his development as an artisan radically progressed after spending time learning from American master Mike Butera in the subsequent year. By 1994, he had won the coveted Pipe Maker of the Year award from the Conclave of Richmond Pipe Smokers (CORPS) – not once, but twice. Weiner established himself throughout the 1990s as one of America’s finest pipe-makers, with his sudden passing in 2002 being a profound loss for the pipe community.

While much of today’s American artisan pipe making is dominated by Danish influences, there was, until relatively recently, another American artisan tradition that leaned closer to the Italian greats. When discussing Radice or Ascorti pipes, for example, I’ve mentioned how there is a lineage that runs from them back to the Caminetto workshop, headed by Luigi Radice and Guiseppe Ascorti, and from the Caminetto workshop to the Castello workshop of Carlo Scotti, where Radice and Ascorti themselves first worked. But one could also plot a line that runs from Carlo Scotti to Mike Butera, as Butera spent time studying pipe making with Carlo Scotti, to the pipe makers who studied with Butera, such as Michael Frey and Steve Weiner. In other words, there is both a Danish-American tradition (or, more accurately, a Scandi-American tradition) as well as an Italo-American tradition. This pipe, made in the final years of Steve Weiner’s life, represents the latter, and does so beautifully. A broad bent Dublin, it wears Weiner’s rendition of the quintessentially Italian, pebble-dash rustication, which perfectly captures the intended craggy, weathered aesthetic of such finishes. While doing so, however, it holds onto a sense of grace, with a distinct, swan-like side profile.

The condition is very good. Slight inner rim darkening and minor finish fading/handling marks.

 

Details:

Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.87 / 22.09mm

Bowl Depth: 1.53″ / 38.86mm

Weight: 1.7oz / 50g