Italian Estates: Castello Collection Great Line Bent Bulldog (KK) (1993) Tobacco Pipe

Italian workshop Castello has a rich history that stretches back to 1947 with its founding by Carlo Scotti, being established as one of the first Italian brands to offer high-quality handmade pipes to the general public. In the 1960s, following the addition of Luigi Radice and Peppino Ascorti to their team of carvers, Castello's pipes began to take on a form that was quite different from the Anglo-French classics that they and others had been producing. The Italian neoclassical style which they had begun to develop led not only to a shaping renaissance within Italy, but the production of a number of now iconic profiles. Castello bent Bulldogs differ in design, and this version features a tall, seemingly protruding bowl, replete with subtle beadlines at the mid-set waist, above which is a tapering dome that reaches toward a flattened rim. The shank and stem also differ from some of the Italian workshop's other bent Bulldogs, with this presentation displaying an extremely understated curvature about the combination, the pairing taking on a consistent taper as the shank lifts gently out of the transition. The combination of shank and stem here takes on a subtly Hawkbill-like undercurve, highlighting the contours of the silhouette and drawing the eye to this pipe's distinctive stature. As part of the Great Line, this is a large pipe, giving it plenty of room to showcase the light stain of the Collection line and all the beautiful grain beneath it.