Added a Nice One to My Ser Jacopo Collection
- Thread starter Mike N
- Start date
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I have only one SJ, purchased new with a windfall on a written piece, on sale at SP for an amazing discount I couldn't match on an estate SJ today. It's a Dublin blast with a square shank and a squared off saddle stem, great looking and great smoking since 2013.
Yours is a unique shape with the short shank and sculpted band. Congratulations.
Yours is a unique shape with the short shank and sculpted band. Congratulations.
That's a stunning pipe. It's reminiscent of the La Pipaccia series but, to my eye, is even nicer than those.
Thanks. I purchased it from Ser Jacopo's long-time American distributor.
Here is the description:
This is a new and unsmoked pipe from the Picta series celebrating the art of Vincent van Gogh. This is the original Picta collection from Giancarlo. The van Gogh collection was originally 15 pieces strong, but Giancarlo continued researching and came up with a 16th and would later add three more to the van Gogh assortment which is now 19 strong. As the number 19 is the final piece of the van Gogh , "Pipe Puzzle" and is a later arrival it's stamped with both the series name and shape number. This helps many as the Pictas number 77 unique shapes over the four series!
This piece is beautiful and rather unique. If it hadn't been part of the van Go series it could easily fit into the La Pipaccia line with its briar covered stem. The bowl is either a billiard or a tall apple with a bull cap ring at the very top of the bowl. The end of the shank sports a horn mount in the shape of a simplified Roman capital and the hand-cut stem is mostly covered with a briar sleeve but the part near the tenon is black plexiglass and meshes perfectly with the pipe's shank. This pipe is in Ser Jacopo's "rosso inglese" finish which is a bit on the dark side. The pipe is smooth throughout and the nomenclature has been stamped on the sides and underside of the shank (PICTA VAN GOGH 19). The pipe will come with a Picta booklet on one of the four Picta series. This pipe dates back to the introduction of the final Picta van Gogh shapes.
In Ser Jacopo grading of smooth pipes, there's Rosso Inglese, L1, L2 and then into the Gem Series.
I even got the original leather sleeve, and I was surprised by how supple it still is. It exudes quality.
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Flamboyant piece, Mike. I'm more of a reserved, classical pipe shape guy, but I respect the hell out of the ingenuity of the Ser Jac shaping. They tend to stay "serious" in their playfulness, if that makes any sense. Some other Italian workshops seem to just take things too far and can be downright silly, IMO. They blend that artistic approach without losing the "pipe" to the art itself. I've got one Ser Jac in the pipe drawer, with another in my sights. Wonderful smokers, they are. Enjoy your new stablemate!
Thank you. That was a great question. But in the end I chose a blend to honor the great memories of my pops, a retired Army officer, taking me to lunch as a kid at the Officer’s Club at the local base in the 1960s. It is a rum-based aromatic and just a nostalgic smoke for me for some reason, although not introduced until 2015 (it must be a familiar room note.) I highly recommend it, although it’s a bit tough to find at times.
(tap on photo to enlarge)
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