Don Carlos Two Note Partially Rusticated Squat Tomato Estate Briar Pipe, Italian Estates

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.

As I’ve mentioned before, there is something of a minor tradition in high-grade Italian workshop pipes, that being designs based on, or evocative of, earthenware. This is quite apparent in the “Pesaro School,” to which Don Carlos, Ser Jacopo, and Le Nuvole belong, but it also extends to figures such as the late Luigi Viprati and Massimo Palazzi and Andrea Pascucci’s L’Anatra. Pottery abounds in these pipes, though in a far less fragile form. The same is true for Don Carlos, with this pipe being a good example, while also being quite different to the way the motif is most commonly applied. For the most part it’s a not entirely squat tomato, or perhaps a prince, rendition—albeit with a distinctive oval shank—but the manner in which the finishing has been applied to the bowl gives it a very distinctive appearance. Rather than a classical tomato or prince bowl, the combination of a partial pebble-dash and a smooth polished, rounded rim gives it that signature “cooking pot” aesthetic so dear to Italian pipes, transforming the design completely in the process.

The condition is very good. Minor darkening and slight scratches on the rim, though nothing major.

Details:

Length: 6.1″ / 154.9mm

Bowl Width: 0.87 / 22.09mm

Bowl Depth: 1.12″ / 28.44mm

Weight: 1.5oz / 44g