Savinelli Punto Oro Capri Root Briar 616 KS Rusticated Bent Billiard Estate Briar Pipe, Italian Estates

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.

This is something of a first for me, as I don’t think I’ve ever personally handled a rusticated Savinelli Punto Oro before that was not a Corallo di Mare iteration. Some background: When Savinelli opened its Milan workshop in 1948, the first pipes made there carried the “Punto Oro,” or “gold point.” In a move that was likely inspired by Dunhill and Sasieni before them, Savinelli pipes thus featured a dot inlay on the top of the stem to distinguish them as high quality smoking instruments. Over the subsequent decades, and with the release of numerous new Savinelli lines, the Punto Oro (and with it the Giubileo D’Oro) became a designation for some of Savinelli’s highest grade pipes, with only around 1% of Savinelli’s entire output earning this qualification. Most Punto Oro pipes today are dressed in either smooth or sandblasted finishes, depending on what best suits the grain. But a very small number (of what is already a very small number) of Savinelli Pipes are dressed in a natural rustication known as the Corallo di Mare, in light of its resemblance to certain species of sea coral. The Corallo di Mare finish is itself the last remaining example of what used to be a much broader set of pipes within Savinelli’s catalog, each of which was rusticated in much the same way. The difference was that the Corallo di Mare was left natural, whereas its relatives in that set, under the “Capri” banner, wore dark, red, tan, or other top-coats. Looking back at old Savinelli catalogs, it would appear that the Capri Root Briar was, at one point, made to Punto Oro quality and sold as such. Hence, what we’re looking at would be a Savinelli Punto Oro Capri Root Briar, a pipe that has not been in production for a long time.

The condition is very good. Some rim darkening and slight finish fading.

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.86 / 21.84mm

Bowl Depth: 1.90″ / 48.26mm

Weight: 2.3oz / 66g