Smooth Bent Dublin (CCCC) Tobacco Pipe

Claudio Cavicchi is not only a renowned pipe maker but also a renowned pipe smoker, having won the Committee International of Pipe Smokers Clubs' slow smoking world championship in 1993 by keeping three grams of tobacco lit for just over three hours and nine minutes. Cavicchi only took up pipe making full-time after a 30-year farming career, turning his first pipe when he decided to make his own Oom Paul rather than continuing to wait for delivery of one he already ordered. Cavicchi pipes are known for their superior grain, with former Pipes and tobaccos magazine editor Chuck Stanion remarking that their titular maker "can read briar as though it were a printed page."

The tall, tight tendrils of flame grain that circle the walls of the bowl of this bent Dublin are a main attraction, finished smoothly to allow for easy observation and stained to a bright, maple-like hue. The bowl is traditionally shaped for a Dublin and topped with shallow plateau, then backed with an upturned shank adorned with flame grain similar in orientation to that of the bowl. A bent, tapered stem of black acrylic finishes the piece, which Cavicchi deemed worthy of a four-C grade (out of five.) Stunningly handsome and shaped beautifully, it's a piece that will instantly be at home with any collection of fine Italian craftsmanship.