Smooth Light Cherrywood (Four Jellyfish) Tobacco Pipe

In creating his brand, Valbruna, Italian artisan Simone Gaudenzi has combined his two greatest passions: pipes and the sea. Before branching out on his own as a pipe-making artisan, Gaudenzi worked under the mentorship of Giancarlo Guidi at the famed Ser Jacopo workshop. There, he developed a keen eye for design and a deep appreciation for the whimsical Pesaro style, which appears prominently in his portfolio to this day. Gaudenzi took a break from pipe making to work in a shipyard, but eventually submitted to the siren song of pipe making once again, returning to the Ser Jacopo workshop in 2014. Now the founder of his own brand, he imbues every piece he produces with his love of both the pipe-making craft and the sea, with his grading system heavily reflecting aquatic themes, and the brand name itself a reference to the legendary underwater city of the same name.

Gaudenzi uses Jellyfish to denote both the size and quality of his briars. As such, this four-Jellyfish Cherrywood is quite the impressive piece, and one that perfectly demonstrates the artisan's penchant for the playful Pesaro style. In addition to the Cherrywood's signature forward cant, this particular iteration also takes on a dramatic curve that pushes the fore of the bowl out, and pulls the aft inward for a truly dynamic silhouette. Moreover, the rim tilts up at the fore and takes on a steady curve of its own, caving inward and inviting the eye to gaze into the bowl's moderately sized chamber. A short shank and long, sleekly tapered stem erupt from the transition out back, their arrow-straight posture adding a touch of linear rigidity to the composition. A smooth, honey-blonde finish tops off the ensemble, highlighting impressive displays of birdseye and flame grain throughout.