Cavicchi Partially Sandblasted Elephant’s Foot 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 think I’ve said it before, but it cannot be stated enough: 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.

The “Elephant’s Foot” is a shape that originated with the legendary Swedish artisan Bo Nordh, though as with so many of Nordh’s designs, it has become far bigger than the man himself. Many artisans have made renditions of Nordh’s shapes since it was first conceived—or, at least, they’ve given it their best. After all, it’s not an easy shape to make, requiring meticulous hand-shaping, excellent briar, and a certain expertise in joining the two in a single composition. Rather than straight grain, it is a shape that hinges upon cross grain and bird’s-eye, with the former being positioned at the shape’s broad front face, and the latter at each side. Get it right, and you have a pipe with a distinctly tall, faceted and flattened figure, with grain lines flowing forward and bursting out in a perfect plane of cirrocumulus patterns, but get it wrong and you have something that looks like a generic freehand made during the 1970s boom. Cavicchi gets it right, though at this point that goes without saying, with this rendition using a mixed-finish as a means to emphasize its bird’s-eye even further in a sandblast relief.

The condition is very good. Minor inner rim darkening and slight finish fading.

Details:

Length: 5.6″ / 142.2mm

Bowl Width: 0.94 / 23.87mm

Bowl Depth: 1.90″ / 48.26mm

Weight: 2.0oz / 58g