Castello: Collection Apple (K) 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 Apple is a sleek and lightweight piece, though one which displays the Italian neoclassical style quite well, thanks to its thick, charmingly rotund bowl. Said bowl is supple and rich with curvature throughout, its walls taking on an arcing taper to the rim that offers plump contours throughout its outline. From out of the transition the shank tapers swiftly into a black acrylic stem, continuing the taper to the button and placing further emphasis on the bowl. Dressed in the rich, chestnut-hued stain of the Italian workshop's Collection finish, the stummel showcases handsome grain throughout, with flame grain around the bowl and birdseye on the rim and underside.