Savinelli Autograph 3 Partially Sandblasted Freehand Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

It is probably fair to say that Savinelli is Italy’s most famous pipe brand. Founded in Milan in 1876 by Achille Savinelli, the brand has continuously offered high quality pipes for nearly 150 years. Though various Savinelli lines have come and gone over the years, the brand has always been notable for putting out classically styled pipes with a distinctly Italian twist.

Like the Charatan freehand workshop in mid-20th century England, or Tsuge’s Ikebana workshop in late 20th century and 21st century Japan, Savinelli has its own, special area of the company’s campus reserved for master artisans, where non-standard pipe shapes are carved using techniques that are closer to handicraft than mechanized, mass production. Sometimes the Autograph workshop produces hand-turned re-imaginings of more classic designs; and other times it produces pipes that are a little more like the Danish “fancy” freehands of Preben Holm et al.; and, most often, Autographs are somewhere in between, embodying a distinctly Italian approach to handmade pipes that sits about halfway between the English and Danish styles. This one is another example of that “sweet spot” between the Brits and the Danes, with the closest analog, to my mind, being the “Traditional” series made by the aforementioned Holm. After all, it’s a beautifully grained, oval shank Dublin pickaxe hybrid, though this juxtaposition of classic forms still remains recognizable within the Anglo-French paradigm, just slightly more modern.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating.

Details:

Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.81 / 20.57mm

Bowl Depth: 1.60″ / 40.64mm

Weight: 1.7oz / 50g