Italian Estates: Castello Sea Rock Briar Zulu (KKK) (37) (1970s-1982) Tobacco Pipe

A decidedly gestural pipe, this Zulu from the Italian workshop features a gently bent stem and straight shank that transitions to an angular, forward-urging bowl. The lines of this pipe convey a gradual momentum, as an intensifying flare begins at the button and ends only at the rim, terminating its expansion in a broad swath of briar. The shank and stem here are delightfully compressed, offering an ovoid shaping that further underscores the sleekness of the aft-side combination and places further emphasis on the bowl. Dressed in the craggy rustication and inky stain of Castello's Sea Rock series, the stummel is rich with texture, and it's a vintage pipe too: being made between the 1970s and 1982.

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.