Zenith Special Radica Italiana Scorta 1955 Smooth Billiard Pencil Shank Pocket Pipe - Unsmoked Estate Pipe

This one has never been smoked. The chamber holds bare briar - no cake, no smoke ring, no tooth marks on the stem - and the shank stamp is still crisp: ZENITH SPECIAL, RADICA ITALIANA, SCORTA 1955.

Zenith Special is the name stamped on this small straight billiard - a pencil-shank pocket pipe with a vulcanite saddle stem and a fishtail slot, no filter fitted. We hold no history for this maker beyond what is stamped on the shank, so none is offered here.

The stamp is worth reading closely, since it is the only documentation the pipe carries. Radica is the Italian word for the briar burl a pipe is cut from - the root of the tree heath, dug and cured before it ever reaches a lathe. Scorta translates as stock or reserve, a word that turns up stamped on pipe shanks to flag a set-aside batch of wood. The figure 1955 sits on the same line. It is quoted here exactly as stamped, with no dating claim made beyond that.

THE MARKS
- Shank stamp, single line: ZENITH SPECIAL RADICA ITALIANA SCORTA 1955

The billiard is the oldest and most standardized of pipe shapes, the reference point against which apple, pot, and dublin bowls are all measured. Its virtue is proportion: straight walls, a flat base, a chamber turned round and true, a shank running in line with the bowl axis so the whole pipe reads as one clean line in a rack. A pencil shank narrows that proportion further - it is turned to a slim, constant diameter rather than flaring out to meet the stem, which keeps the whole pipe light and slim enough to ride in a jacket pocket without printing, the pocket pipe the seller calls it. The vulcanite stem is cut to a saddle profile, a stepped mouthpiece sitting flush against the shank rather than tapering smoothly into it, and the bit ends in a fishtail slot - a wide, flat opening that spreads the draw across the lip rather than pulling it through one round bore. No filter is fitted; air runs straight from tobacco to mouth, which on a bowl this size keeps the smoke close and the pull light.

Finish and grain: see the photographs.

Condition: stated brand new and unsmoked. Chamber shows bare briar, no cake buildup. No fills, cracks, or repairs noted.

THE MEASUREMENTS
Length 142mm (5.7 in) - Bowl height 45mm (1.8 in) - Bowl width 30mm (1.2 in) - Bowl depth 40mm (1.6 in) - Diameter 17mm (0.7 in) - Weight 0.9 oz

Ships from the Faridunhill / Pipe Collectors Encyclopedia archive. Worldwide shipping and professional sanitation on every estate pipe.

SKU: 002