Fine Gifts

[TripleCappedPiper]

Today, I received the single most generous bomb I've ever seen. A brother named Scott (who very well might have been on here at one point in time) decided to adopt me as his pipe son. These are all very special, in one way or another.
The Ser Jacopo Delecta was acquired at the first ever Chicago Pipe Show. It was originally adorned with the early coral dot logo, but a finger fumble resulted in a factory replacement stem needing to be fitted.
The Ashton Sovereign XX was a gift to Scott from Bill Taylor in the mid 90s. It was fitted with a silver band by Mark Tinsky as a result of a flaw. Also, the story goes that Bill had misplaced his date-stamp during this period, thus there is no stamp to refer to for age verification.
And lastly, the Ferndown. It's absolutely gorgeous and elegant. This single star "Root" billiard was purchased in the late 90s, and sports the signature tooled silver band that Les Woods was known to fit to his pipes.
I'm over the moon with the honor receiving these. Thanks for bearinf through my history lesson

 

[Zeno Marx]

Those are some VERY nice pipes. I remember when Ser Jacopo first hit the US market. I remember that being the first time I ran into Radice as well. Marble Arch/Lane Ltd distributed them? I didn't do the pipe ordering for the shop, so I never actually handled the paperwork. I've only owned a couple in my time, but one of the two from my original collection, that I mostly sold, that I would LOVE to have back is a Ser Jacopo. The SJ designs for their time blew minds. This is unrelated to your pipe, but their marquee shape as they hit the US market was giant calabash-like briar pipes. I never see those old ones show up for sale, and there had to be quite a few of them. I say it all the time, but it is strange how all the shapes particular to the 1990s rarely show up for resale.

And those early Ashtons are easily some of the finest wood I've ever handled. You run into great wood here and there, but to my knowledge, early Bill Taylor has been the only one to focus on super dense, super light wood as a requisite. It's really sort of impressive how every single one of those early Taylors that I've handled was light as a feather and could be used to hammer roofing nails.

I've only owned one Ferndown, and I can't remember a thing about it. I'd love to try another. I really like the subtle shaping signature that guy had.