Brentegani Contast Sandblasted Stack Billiard w/ Horn Handmade Briar Pipe, New

Over the last decade, a new scene of sorts has emerged in Italian pipe making, one dominated by artisans whose work bridges the traditions of high-grade Italian pipes with those of Scandinavia, the United States, and Japan. Michele Brentegani is one such artisan, having first taken up pipe making in the mid-2010s. Though, as is so often the case in this industry, Brentegani’s path toward the life of a pipe maker was decided by two things: community and chance. Brentegani’s grandfather was a woodworker and it was through time spent in the latter’s shop that a young Michele was introduced to the fundamentals of handicraft. In fact, though his grandfather did not make pipes, his influence on Brentegani was so formative that, many years later, when Michele did take up pipe making, he adopted his grandfather’s signature for the nomenclature of Brentegani Pipe. Still, when adulthood arrived, Brentegani originally opted for an altogether different career. He remained a lifelong working hobbyist, crafting ornaments and instruments in his spare time, but was only in 2015, after being introduced to pipes by a friend, that Brentegani became enamored by them, to the point where he wanted to try making one. He was able to turn a bowl, but was at a loss when it came to making a stem. He was not even sure where to buy the materials to cut one from. To this end, he contacted Italy’s famous Brebbia workshop to ask where he might buy rod stock for cutting stems. Brebbia’s staff gave him pointers and, quite out of the blue, days later he received a package from them containing three pre-molded stems to experiment with. Soon enough, Brentegani’s pipes were being debuted at shows in Italy; he was admitted to the Accademia della Pipa, a school intended to nurture the talents of Italy’s most promising up-and-coming pipe makers, headed by “Mimmo” Romeo, Gabriele dal Fiume, Davide Iafisco, and Gioacchino Sauro; and, in 2021, he was commissioned to make the 21st Anniversary pipes for mainstay Italian tobacconist Le Pipe Sas. Though it has been a long time in the making, MBSD Pipes is now very pleased to offer Brentegani Pipe in our shop, as well. One of the things I’ve always liked about Brentegani’s pipes is that they are quite distinctive, but subtly so. While he, like many pipe makers of his generation, often looks toward trends in Scandinavian and Scandi-American pipes for inspiration, his most “Brentegani style” works are too idiosyncratic to be reducible to either. Much like the brandy listed alongside it, I’d say this stack is a strong representative of the Brentegani style. It combines a chimney bowl with a notable, uncharacteristic plumpness with a near-pencil thin shank, juxtaposing thick and thin in a very interesting way. Part of how it is able to do this is through the inclusion of a slight under-travel of the shank transition, which allows the bowl to achieve a fuller, rounder figure. As with the brandy, the bowl on this one has also been shaped in a cross-cut manner, but in this instance it’s bird’s-eye that takes center stage, brought into relief and lit up by a deep contrast sandblast.   Details: Length: 5.6″ / 142.2mm Bowl Width: 0.70 / 17.78mm Bowl Depth: 2.00″ / 50.8mm Weight: 0.9oz / 28g