Castello: Old Antiquari Bent Dublin (Big Line) 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's Big Line series is quite the interesting one, as it comprises stummels made from briar that has been aged for 12 years, ensuring that the final burl is excellently cured by the time it is shaped. Also, it designates pipes that are really, really large, which this bent Dublin certainly is. The bowl is unquestionably the visual center of this pipe, comprising a monolithic, towering form that flares dramatically out to a vast, plateau-crowned rim. The walls of the bowl are rather compressed at the flanks, lending the rim an ovoid shape and making for a profile that fits more easily in hand. A wide transition here gives way to a tapering shank-and-stem combination that arcs gently as it travels to the button, the shank boasting an extended oval shape as it lifts to meet the stem's dark acrylic. Thick and hearty, the stummel of this pipe is dressed in the crisp sandblast of the Old Antiquari finish, its lower bowl and shank stained a warm auburn that's nicely contrasted by the fumed rim.