Don Carlos Kronos Two Note Smooth Volcano with Boxwood and Silver (Estate)

Don Carlos belongs to a historic lineage within Italian pipe making. The workshop was founded by Bruto Sordini (along with his wife Rosaria), who had previously made pipes for Mastro de Paja, where he also met Giancarlo Guidi. In 1981, Sordini and Guidi left Mastro de Paja to found their own workshop, Ser Jacopo. After years of making pipes at Ser Jacopo, Sordini once again departed to found a new venture, as he had ideas for shapes and styles that were quite different to Ser Jacopo’s established design philosophy. Sordini therefore created Don Carlos as a means of expressing this vision, resulting in pipes that are both quintessentially Italian, and bearing aesthetic that is wholly their own.

While Bruto and Rosaria Sordini’s Don Carlos pipes are, for the most part, unique in shape and style, there is a class of pipes that adhere to the same shape. Along with the Ars et Labor line, these pipes, such as the Bolero, the Kronos series, and the Melos series, are something like the jewels in the crown of Don Carlos, recurring every now and then due to the deep fondness the Sordinis have for them.

Named for San Francisco’s Kronos string quartet, the Don Carlos Kronos is a very unusual design, in part because its namesake is famous for avant-garde compositions. One way that this is expressed is through the Kronos’s oscillating figure, intended to evoke the quartet’s “playful dueling of contrasts and references.”

The condition is very good. Some inner rim darkening, a few small scratches on the bowl, and slight handling marks. This pipe comes with its original sleeve.

Details:

Length: 5.4″ / 137.1mm

Bowl Width: 0.76 / 19.30mm

Bowl Depth: 1.44″ / 36.57mm

Weight: 1.2oz / 36g