Cavicchi CCC Smooth Cherrywood Sitter 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’m often struck by how well Claudio Cavicchi can carve just about any shape imaginable—and of course, do it well. But even better is that, in the process, he quickly makes the shape his own. This Cavicchi cherrywood, for example, takes the basics of a design older than most briars, and re-works it into something novel and highly distinctive. The shank, for example, has been given a more angular figure, one reminiscent of a Danish or American freehand pipe. The stem also has a flared briar inlay which, again, is something more readily associated with freehand pipes (especially, for example, those of Denmark’s Bari). Given that the pipe’s main body is, essentially, a simple cylinder, these extra design elements help to keep it interesting. Being a Cavicchi, and having a 3 out of 5 possible Cs for its grade, the grain is excellent, and the bowl is genuinely alive with bird’s-eye. But it’s those little extra touches, when it comes to overall design, that separates a pipe maker with good briar from a pipe maker who can turn it into a great pipe.

The condition is great, too. It has been smoked a couple of times at most, judging by the miniscule carbonization of the chamber. The pipe comes with its original box and sleeve.

 

Details:

Length: 5.2″ / 132.0mm

Bowl Width: 0.84 / 21.33mm

Bowl Depth: 1.71″ / 43.43mm

Weight: 2.3oz / 66g