Cavicchi Brown Smooth Sphinx Estate Briar Pipe, Italian Estates

Description

In 1974, after growing impatient waiting for a pipe he’d ordered, Claudio Cavicchi decided he would simply make his own pipe instead. The former farmer from Bologna, Italy, spent the next 15 years making pipes, until his work took off and received widespread acclaim. Cavicchi’s pipe-making exploits have only become more renowned in the decades since. Today, Cavicchi’s pipes hold a firm place at the top of an extraordinarily competitive Italian high-grades scene, being as carefully and meticulously crafted as they are beautiful. With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that Claudio himself is a world record holding slow smoking champion.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: not only does Claudio Cavicchi produce some of the finest pipes on the market today, but he is also once of the most versatile pipe makers alive. He can turn an Anglo-French large billiard with grain comparable to the highest grades on the Dunhill Dead Root line, an Italian-style Dublin leagues ahead of most of his compatriots, or indeed a Danish horn that one might mistake for the work of Jess Chonowitsch. In the case of this one, it’s a Danish-inspired shape, though a slightly more obscure one, especially for an Italian artisan. Though it bears resemblances to the cobra, it is more accurately termed a Sphinx, owing to its resemblance to the ancient Egyptian deity and surviving sculptures of such. One way to think about it is as a cobra in reverse, with the hallmark “hood” at either side of the bowl furling forward instead of back. It’s also a shape that is arguably better suited to a focus on straight grain patterns, rather than the great plane of bird’s-eye typical of high-end cobra renditions—which Cavicchi has, of course, brought out in a sublime manner in his rather rustic, plateaux-tipped take on the former.

The condition is very good. Minor inner rim darkening. This pipe comes with its original sleeve.

Details:

Length: 6.1″ / 154.9mm

Bowl Width: 0.89 / 22.60mm

Bowl Depth: 1.55″ / 39.37mm

Weight: 1.8oz / 52g