Savinelli Bionda 101 Smooth Straight Billiard Estate Pipe, 6mm Filter

SAVINELLI in an arc, bionda in script beneath it, and on the other side of the shank the S shield, 101 and ITALY. This is a Savinelli Bionda 101, a smooth straight billiard with a tapered vulcanite stem, made for a 6 mm filter, with a converter so it can also be smoked without one.

It is a very elegant pipe and a real collectable piece. The stem carries two small gold-coloured dots, the logo of this series, and two thin gold-coloured rings where it meets the shank. A silk Savinelli sleeve comes with the pipe; it was added because a pipe like this should be well presented.

The Savinelli name goes back to 1876, when Achille Savinelli Sr. opened a tobacco shop in Milan. Achille Savinelli Jr. started making pipes under the family name in 1948; one account names Amleto Pome and Mario Vettoruzzo with him, another an association with Enea Buzzi at Brebbia. Production has stayed in Italy ever since, and the fourth generation of the family, Giancarlo Savinelli, followed.

THE MARKS

- SAVINELLI in an arc / bionda in script, on one side of the shank
- The S shield / 101 / ITALY, on the other side of the shank
- Two gold-coloured dots on the stem

Savinelli marks its shapes with numbers. Early pipes carried four-digit shape numbers; the numbers later moved to three digits (the Dry System and Non Pareil lines excepted). A letter suffix gives the size: KS for King Size, EX for Extraordinaire, and no letter for the regular size, by the Savinelli catalogue of 2015. The 101 here has three digits and no letter, so it is the regular size of shape 101, which appears on Savinelli's own shape chart and which a dealer lists as a billiard. The S shield stamped on the shank is the crest Savinelli uses on most of its lines. No year is known for the Bionda line.

A billiard has a cylindrical bowl at a right angle to a straight shank. On this one the bowl is 51.56 mm high and 39.12 mm across the outside, with a chamber 43.18 mm deep and 20.57 mm wide, and the tapered stem narrows from the rings to the bit.

The finish is smooth and glossy, and grain lines show across the bowl. Please see the photographs for the grain, the rim and the stem.

Condition: pre-smoked, very good to excellent.

THE MEASUREMENTS

- Length: 142.75 mm (5.62 in)
- Bowl height: 51.56 mm (2.03 in)
- Outside diameter: 39.12 mm (1.54 in)
- Chamber depth: 43.18 mm (1.70 in)
- Chamber diameter: 20.57 mm (0.81 in)
- Weight: 59.53 g (2.31 oz)

Ships from the Faridunhill archive. Worldwide shipping and professional sanitation on every estate pipe. SKU: 334