Ser Jacopo
The Ser Jacopo dalla Gemma story starts with Giancarlos Guidi. Giancarlos carear started back in 1970 when he began working with Moretti and Raganella. After quickly mastering the process of production line manufacture, he set his eyes on working on hand made pipes. Seeing beautiful grain wasted on a predesigned shape, when with carful hand carving could result in eye watering pieces. By 1972 Guidi co-founded Master de Paja and he soon became renowned for his artistic interpretation of classic shape. Reading the briar and shaping your pipe based on grain. This saw Master de Paja and Giancarlos pipes become synonymous with the region and the “Pesaro School” was born.
By 1982 Guidi fancied another challenge and left Master de Paja with Bruto Sordini. The pair established The Ser Jacopo dalla Gemma, firmly following the Pesaro style of design and quality. Giancarlos set about marrying up seasoned briar with use of different mounts; from exotic woods, Horn, bone, precious metals and gems. Some of the early examples of Ser Jacopo have fetched over $10,000 at auctions and are highly collectable.
The pair took on apprentice carvers and taught the ins and outs to many of Italy’s finest artisan carvers today, including Massimo Palazzi (L’Anatra), Franco Rossi (Il Ceppo). To this day the factory employs five fulltime carvers and produces around 6,000 pipes a year. Sadly Gincarlos passed away in 2012, leaving behind him a legacy which insipired artisan carvers the world over to listen to their briar and carve from the heart, not a shape chart.
