Le Nuvole 6 Cloud Smooth Hawkbill Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

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.

The hawkbill is a staple of Italian pipe making, with just about every major workshop, from Castello to Ser Jacopo, having its own take on that most unusual of shapes. Maurizio and Stefania Tombari also have their own, unique approaches to the shape, though Le Nuvole hawkbills stand out even in a veritable field of distinctive and distinctly high-grade renditions. Blending the conventional hawkbill with briar and meerschaum shapes of days gone by, such as the Lyon, this one is decidedly plump and organic, especially when factoring in its almost orific, concave rim, while simultaneously conjuring the signature lightness of Le Nuvole pipes. As far as grading goes, this one is a “6 Cloud,” the third highest attainable for Le Nuvole pipes. Worth noting is that the Tombaris are extremely exacting when it comes to grading, which is done according to the consistency of the straight grain exhibited by Le Nuvole pipes, and as such very few of these pipes have ever been awarded grades from the higher-end of the Tombaris’ system (during the entirety of the 2010s, for example, only 2 Le Nuvole pipes received an “8 Cloud” grade, and only 7 received a “7 Cloud” grade).

This pipe is completely unsmoked and comes with its original box and sleeve.

Details:

Length: 5.6″ / 142.2mm

Bowl Width: 0.78 / 19.81mm

Bowl Depth: 1.90″ / 48.26mm

Weight: 1.9oz / 54g