Rinaldo Collection 800 Smooth Calabash w/ Silver Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

As with so many of today’s premier Italian workshop makes, the story of Rinaldo begins at Mastro de Paja. The latter was a workshop founded by Giancarlo Guidi (later of Ser Jacopo) and Giannino Spadoni (later of Fiamma di Re), which the brothers Elio and Guido Rinaldo worked for as teenagers in the 1970s. At the end of the 1980s, the two departed Mastro de Paja to found their own make under their surname. Thus, Rinaldo was born.

Released all the way back in 2013, Elio and Guido Rinaldo’s Collection 800 was something of a departure from the brothers’ more typical output. Instead of the one-of-a-kind pieces Rinaldo is known for, which occasionally feature common motifs but which are, in essence, each unique, the Collection 800 was a limited edition run of pipes in one shape: the calabash. Even more interesting, however, was that the calabash design the Rinaldo brothers created was highly original, while still maintaining the elementary components and functions of a “true” calabash. Composed almost entirely out of briar (along with a Lucite stem and ornate, sterling silver trim), the main body of the is, as can be seen here, remarkably tall (not unlike a traditional calabash), but with a figure closer to a brass instrument, with notable parallels to the designs of America’s Ed Burak. The top half of the bowl houses the chamber and can be unscrewed, while the bottom half serves as the pipe’s second chamber, where smoke cools and dries before reaching the draft hole. Though I’m not sure precisely how many Collection 800 pipes were made, I do know that they were available in a number of finishes from the Rinaldo portfolio. This one appears to be the walnut Triade, a brown contrast stain that gives the pipe an even more impressive, straight grain visage.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating. Some slight handling marks, though nothing major.

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.76 / 19.30mm

Bowl Depth: 1.39″ / 35.30mm

Weight: 2.3oz / 68g