Ser Jacopo

Ser Jacopo, in full Ser Jacopo dalla Gemma, is a handmade pipe workshop working in Pesaro, on Italy's Adriatic coast. Its founder, Giancarlo Guidi, established the brand after leaving the Mastro de Paja partnership he had been part of for many years. The workshop is known for a finishing approach that pairs the bowl with rings of precious metal, horn, exotic wood, and stone.

Founding and Name

Guidi's partnership at Mastro de Paja ended in 1981, and his own brand was born immediately afterward. Sources give the founding year as 1982; some records place the start of commercial activity in 1983. In the early years, Guidi was joined by Bruto Sordini, whom he knew from the earlier workshop; according to accounts, Sordini left in 1988 to work under his own name. The brand name is said to derive from an Italian nobleman; records indicate it is a shortened form of "Jacopone," a name that appears in a Renaissance portrait. Guidi and Sordini are counted among the generation that turned Pesaro into one of the centers of Italian artisan pipe making.