1500 dollar Savinelli 320

[Briar Baron]

Very strange how they get to that pricing. There are plenty of good pipes around for under $250 that have much better grain than that.
I also have a Brebba Linea AAA that has better grain that any pipe I have seen in the $1,000 - $2,000 price range (and its engineering is perfect) Actually the Linea AAA has better grain that most Dunhill *** or **** dots also, so it shows how crazy the pricing can become since those Dunhills are in the $3,000 - $4,000 range.

 

[ssjones]

My 320 KS G'DO has the "Straight Grain Fiammata" and cost considerably less (less than $200..)
It's curious that they the stem material as "NA". I can't seem to email them thru their system to ask why. Older GDO's used vulcanite and no filter (this one says NA for the filter).
For George
photo upload sites

 

[oldgeezersmoker]

That is the second three star Fiamatta I have seen.In 35+ years though I took a 15 year break. When I saw the first one at a show in the late 1980's or early 1990's, no one else had seen one, either. A two star appeared on eBay from an Italian seller, but it had a gold band that had no indication that it was put there by Savinelli. I imagine that *** piece is the holy grail for GDO specialists.
My own view is that you can't smoke nomenclature, but then again, in my shopping in the sub $200 range on eBay I find myself paying a lot of attention to it. There is actually a lot of pretty rare wood that comes up in that price range and slides right past people. That is in the eye of this beholder, and even then I let most of it go. It is a two way street, there has to be demand, too. There just were not many Savinelli collectors willing to pay large $ for GDO's or 000 Autographs back in those days. They were boat anchors.
But things change. Smoking Pipes has done a lot to raise the image of Savinelli. I see lots of discussion on the net about different shapes being scarce, people looking for four digit shapes and so forth. I imagine somebody will make a serious offer for that pipe. Is this a great country, or what?

 

[bigpond]

Al, the page is borked. Or perhaps the reason for the price is that the shape really is a Paneled Horn, as the page says, but the panels are subtle to the point of invisibility to the eye if not the hand?
I think that pipe was particularly difficult for SPC to photograph. I've seen so many detailed photos of grain from them, but here the stain, lighting, curvature of the bowl or something....just does not allow the grain to really "pop".

 

[davet]

$51.20 , just sayin :mrgreen:

 

[fitzy]

It's a nice pipe but I don't get what makes it a Giubileo d'Oro or a 3 star. Is it because they don't generally make 320's in the Giubileo d'Oro line? I see an estate one for over $600 on sp.com and it's certainly not a 3 star.
Maybe it was supposed to be in the Venere or Spring line and someone goofed and put the wrong stamping on it. :rofl:
The grain on this golf is a hell of a lot nicer.

 

[fitzy]

Al I think that N/A is just a mistake on smoking pipes part.
Hell their shape says "Shape: Panel Horn"

 

[crashthegrey]

For that price they still dip stained it?

 

[pitchfork]

Well, it's a collector's piece as much as anything else. Comparable to the Dunhill DR (**, ***, ****).

 

[anthonyrosenthal74]

I'm sure the pipe has much nicer grain than what you can see in the photos. I have to assume the lighting SP uses to photograph their pipes is perhaps washing it out. Mind you, nothing against SP photo department. They do, in my opinion, a much better job with their photos than the other online retailers. It's just not working out for this pipe. Natural finish, no contrast, very high gloss wax, and the light works like headlights on a rainy street under the streetlights at night... makes it hard to see the lines for the lanes. In the video, it seems you can get a better look at the grain. Still hard to see, but you can get a better idea. I'm still dumbfounded by the price. I just don't see it. But I'm willing to bet some serious collector with deep pockets will indeed pay that price for that pipe. It is marked down after all

 

[gloucesterman]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and Value is satisfied when I possess what I want at a price I'm willing to pay. For somebody out there the ability to own a grade of pipe that is so seldom made will be worth the price. Look at the art world, a few will pay hundreds of thousands for something many of us wouldn't hang on our wall. The same dynamic is at work. It's the non-verbal equivalent of "because I can".

 

[pipehunter]

Fortunately, it's on sale.

 

[fitzy]

Gloucesterman is correct.
I see shit art around the corner from my office that sells for hundreds of thousands of dollars. One was just a solid color and was like half a million.
Then I see shit like this that's maybe 80k and looks like it's drawn by a kindergartener.

 

[fitzy]

This one's around 180k.

 

[fitzy]

How about a picture of a box and a pallet for over 200k?
Sorry for getting off track. This kind of stuff I find hilarious.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Price has nothing to do with whether something is art or not. Price has to do with someone's marketing. The more the price, does not mean higher the creativity nor artistic merits. It means someone has made the argument that their "thing" is maybe worth more to someone out there. And, because something has a price tag on it, does not mean that there is really someone willing to pay that price for it.

 

[georged]

Too bad the New & Improved (cough) Savinelli company is going down the how-many-whatsits-are-stamped-on-it rabbit hole. To shoot for a piece of the cash-heavy, knowledge-light Chinese market, no doubt.
Oh well.
Some years back Sav just set aside the occasional regular production specimens that had interesting grain and no surface flaws, gave them special markings, and that was that. We called them "Italian Dunhills" because they were their equal in every way. Light weight, light stain, well finished, and decently shaped. I have a half dozen of the little buggers, and love them like puppies. They all smoke great. The one below was $145 new in 1985, which would be $327.25 in today's money.
$1500 for a badly shaped author with meh wood is flat-out cringe-worthy, though, imo.
.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Geored, who came up with the standards for that shape that you guys used in the KC Carving Contest?

 

[georged]

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Ummm, I don't understand your response.