Smooth Blowfish with Horn Tobacco Pipe

Il Cerchio pipes are handmade by Angelo del Prete in Pordenone, Italy. Translating to "The Circle" from Italian, the name Il Cerchio references the concepts of balance and consistency that del Prete prioritizes in each of his designs — elevated by his premium craftsmanship and creative aesthetic eye. With a degree in furniture design and decoration and the owner of a tobacco shop, del Prete boasts a longstanding passion for both woodworking and pipes and tobacco, a passion he now leverages as one of Italy's most established artisan carvers. Having received early training from fellow carvers Maximiliano Rimensi of Il Duca and Davide Iafisco, del Prete crafts innovative and reliable pipes, offering distinctive aesthetics alongside meticulous engineering.

The Blowfish is among the most explorable shapes in the pipe-making world, meaning it has vast potential for creative experimentation based on the individual carver's personal vision. In this Il Cerchio version, the shape's defining features are maintained — a central panel of cross grain bifurcating asymmetrical flanks of birdseye — yet del Prete has elevated it with his own design sensibilities. In many of his pipes, the Italian artisan enjoys playing with bulbous, asymmetrical forms, either via accenting materials, stem bases, or both. This Blowfish reveals both: An impressive accent of swirled horn flares into a rounded, asymmetrical end, which is echoed and matched by the stem's bulbous base. Combined with the rounded nature of the bowl in profile, these curvaceous bulbs create a three-part harmony throughout the composition — from bowl, to shank, to stem. Such a theme coheres all elements of the pipe together, enhanced by the briar's remarkable grain and the horn's arresting visual texture.