Italian Estates: Castello Collection Billiard (KKKK) (2023) 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. This Billiard is a fine example of the talents of Castello's carvers, its muscular bowl housing a fairly capacious chamber atop a rounded heel flattened just enough to allow it to sit sturdily upright. The bowl is paired to a tapering shank-and-stem combination which lends the aft side of this pipe a sleek character and places further emphasis on the bowl. A hearty and handsome pipe, its stummel is here dressed in the light, smooth stain of the workshop's Collection finish, the stummel here showcases a wealth of handsome grain.