Graziano Tendi Tan Sandblasted “O” Squat Bulldog Handmade Briar Pipe, New

Description

The Italian artisan scene is, today, more vibrant than it has perhaps ever been. While the 20th century was largely dominated by seminal workshops, such as Mastro de Paja and Castello, their many offshoots, such as Ser Jacopo and Caminetto, and the familial dynasties frequently bound up with them, such as the Roveras, the Ascortis, and the Musicos, the 21st century has seen an emergence of networks of solo carvers, whose talents have come to rival both the great workshops of their homeland and their solo counterparts abroad, such as in Denmark or the United States. Graziano Tendi is just such a pipe maker. Having been enamored with tobacco pipes since he was a teenager, he has, for over a decade, been crafting his own pipes under the Tendi name. Pipe Tendi has been a genuine cult hit, even at home in the notoriously competitive Italian pipe scene, so it is our great pleasure to carry them in America for the first time.

While Tendi makes pipes in a variety of styles, the majority of his works are traditional shapes in the English-French mold, which makes him quite rare among his contemporaries in Italy and abroad. Instead, he is most often far closer to late 20th and early 21st century neoclassicists like Bill Taylor, of the UK’s Ashton, or even J.T. Cooke and Michael Parks in the US and Canada respectively.

And it doesn’t get much more classic than the wide, squat bulldog shape, especially in the style popularized by Dunhill through the Quaint Shape “O.” Like the O renditions of Dunhill’s patent years, Tendi’s squat bulldog is both wide and slightly short, with a rich, ring grain sandblast. The color palette on this one is, on the other hand, more contemporary, and more in line with something like an Ashton rendition, wearing as it does a light tan finish, paired with a brindled green ebonite mouthpiece.

Details:

Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.78 / 19.81mm

Bowl Depth: 1.41″ / 35.81mm

Weight: 1.9oz / 54g