Le Nuvole 1 Cloud Rusticated Billiard with Silver (Estate)

Maurizio Tombari is one of the most interesting figures to emerge from the so-called “Pesaro school” of pipe making, which is a high bar to clear. Trained as a painter at Italy’s Accademia di Belle Art di Urbino, Tombari would ultimately join one of the founding pipe workshops of the Pesaro school, Mastro de Paja, working alongside its founders Giancarlo Guidi and Giannino Spadoni. After Guidi Mastro de Paja left to found Ser Jacopo with Bruto Sordini (another Mastro de Paja alum), Tombari joined him, working under Guidi until 1996. At this point, it was time for Tombari to depart again, this time with the intention of creating his own, independent pipe venture. But he would not be entirely on his own; like his former colleague Bruto Sordini, who had departed Ser Jacopo in the early 1990s to create Don Carlos pipes with his wife Rosaria, Maurizio Tombari was joined by his wife, Stefania, in his new endeavor. Together, Maurizio and Stefania Tombari created Le Nuvole, a partnership between two lifelong artists with a view to creating pipes as unique and harmonious as their meteorological namesake.

While Maurizio Tombari’s designs are often freeform and thoroughly modern, his commitment to lightness in the pipes he creates also inevitably leads him to the classics every now and then. After all, there are few shapes as slight and elegant as, say, a prince, or—as in the case here, a good old fashioned English billiard. A genuine featherweight, this one also wears a very Italian rusticated finish and is accented with a slim band of sterling silver.

The condition is very good. Minor inner rim charring and handling marks.

Details:

Length: 5.9″ / 149.8mm

Bowl Width: 0.77 / 19.55mm

Bowl Depth: 1.48″ / 37.59mm

Weight: 0.9oz / 28g