That's such a cool pipe. That's the exact pipe smoked by the boar hunters on Corsica when Napoleon was in his nappies.
Can you tell us who made it and where it's from?
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Can you tell us who made it and where it's from?
Unfortunately, all I know was that it belonged to the pipe maker, Thomas Cristiano. It was in his personal collection for about sixty years; he may have gotten it at a pipe show. It bears no markings or stamps whatsoever. It was unsmoked when I got it from someone in his family in 2022. I had been eyeballing it for well over a year, maybe two, but the price tag was very hefty. The price got lowered by a large percentage later on and it was still expensive. There was subsequently a large discount offered and I snagged it for a fraction of both previous asking prices. Knowing that it was in Cristiano’s collection for about sixty years made me think it would be in good company with my other 60th Birthday pipes in 2023. Ironically, I ordered it on Black Friday in November of 2022, the same night I failed to check Savinelli’s site for the Eccezionale with the blue pillared box (which sold that day) that I had originally intended to be a 60th Birthday pipe.
Amazing!!!
...So who knows how old that pipe is eh? It's very badass. That's all I can say.
What kind of dimensions does it have?
What is so cool about that pipe, is the stem was a small trunk of the shrub that grew out of a huge burl. The root would have been below, and was discarded.
I wonder how it was drilled?
The roots were worthless and the trunks only good for brooms. Only the burl was fireproof and fit for pipes.
How far down does the bowl go?
I wonder how it was drilled?
The roots were worthless and the trunks only good for brooms. Only the burl was fireproof and fit for pipes.
How far down does the bowl go?
Looks like it was a small burl, with the bend being a fluke of nature. Maybe it sprouted on a steep incline. (?)
Yep.
BTW. That Tracy Mincer Custombilt looks like a nice hunk of briar. Cool shaping.
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Amazing!!!
...So who knows how old that pipe is eh? It's very badass. That's all I can say.
What kind of dimensions does it have?
It’s pretty big. From the top of the rim to the heel/foot is about 6.25", but the chamber is only around 2.0". I’ve placed a Savinelli Series III 320KS next to it for scale to give you a better idea of its relative proportions with a common pipe. Because it’s so tall, the top of the pipe is out of your field of vision which makes lighting and relighting a bit problematic (I don’t want to scorch the rim—it pains me to see some the beautiful and pricey pipes in WAYS with burnt or darkened rims when it is mostly avoidable).
Regarding the drilling, essentially two straight lines. The three pipe cleaners are not exactly lined up, but the pic should give you a pretty good idea. I imagine a lot of measuring and setting up a jig was necessary to get it right.
Oh wow, yeah it's huge. Nice deep chamber though. Does it pass a pipe cleaner?!
On a normal burl, that trunk would be larger, and it would be growing upwards not at a 90 degree angle. You can see where it sprouts from the burl, and still has knots and bumps.
Then to add to the jackpot it was an almost perfect straight grain. Look at the rim.
There aren’t many of those, for certain.
The theory is that tumor of a burl holds the root down.
And why are only burls from the heather shrub around the Mediterranean worth making into pipes, and only a few of those, which in turn there is enormous waste of usable burls?
If they could use another wood, they would.
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According to pipedia he was only 53 when he died.
I’m just going on what I was told by the people who sold me the pipe who worked with his son(?) Perhaps, it came from his father, or they were spinning a yarn.
According to pipedia he was only 53 when he died.
I just looked at the e-mail exchange. I believe the original listing said it was in a collection for sixty years. I asked for more background and was told Thomas Cristiano got it at a pipe show. It was my mistake combining what was probably the pipe’s tenure with the previous owner and Cristiano.