Castello: Old America 2023 Aristocratica Bent Egg (02.24) Tobacco Pipe

Founded in 1947 by Carlo Scotti, Castello's commitment to handcrafting high-quality pipes helped elevate the reputation of Italian pipes to luxury status. Furthermore, Castello's personal shaping approach to pipes helped cultivate the bowl-centric and whimsical Italian neoclassic aesthetic. In 2020, Castello started the Old America series, honoring the American audience of the Italian workshop's pipes by choosing a shape from their legendary shape chart and dressing them in a wide variety of finishes. Each pipe in the series also features a diamond-like inlay on the stem base, a callback to how Castello used to distinguish pipes made for U.S. distribution with a similar inlay, offering a retro look that old-school Castello fans are sure to appreciate.

Castello's 2023 limited-edition Old America pipe is their famous bent Egg shape, which corresponds to the "93" on their old shape chart. This bent Egg, numbered 2 in the 24 pipe series, is a gargantuan briar, its palm-filling bowl feeling extra robust in hand due to the pipe's weight of over half a pound. The bulging fore and pronounced heel form a curvaceous arc that extends onto the underside of the well-bent shank, which rises nearly upright out of the expansive transition. Furthermore, the shank end is fitted with a military mount, which is fashioned from the same navy-blue acrylic as the stem, offering an understated flourish of color. Additionally, this pipe features Castello's Aristocratica finish, dressing the stummel in vibrant auburn stain and a fumed rim — one of Italian pipe making's most iconic styles.