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On Saturday, March 5th, Luigi Radice celebrated his 77th birthday. I got there late — almost noon — thanks to a localized snowstorm in Varese, where I'd started that morning. Luca Di Piazza, Luigi, and his sons and fellow Radice pipe makers Marzio and Giancluca were all there. Luigi was, when I arrived, working — making pipes.
Of course, Luigi Radice does work less than he once did. I remember the first time I met him at his workshop, perhaps five or six years ago. He told me (through Luca) that on Sundays, he works on fun projects and only in the afternoon (and he was in his early 70s then). Now, he takes a break most days to play cards with friends after lunch, before going back to work for a couple of hours. And his pattern, aside from a glass of sparkling wine before lunch, deviated not at all for his birthday.
He spent a little time chatting before he wandered back out to continue making pipes. This is the pattern, it seems, when the Radices have guests. Marzio, by far the most gregarious of the three, talks about shapes, finishes, and the business in general and helps me to select pipes, while Luigi and Gianluca quietly disappear back to pipe making (or sometimes not so quietly: most steps in the pipe making process are anything but quiet). Luigi especially seems most comfortable shaping or sanding or staining.
These days, most Radice pipes are made by Marzio and Gianluca. About half of Luigi's time is spent making fanciful pipes, or other objects, for his collection of crazy creations. There's no real expectation that these will ever be sold. They're mostly just fun exercises. Luigi's vocation is pipe making. Luigi's avocation is eccentric pipe making.
Cases and shelves of Luigi's eccentric pipe making abound throughout the workshop, particularly in the office area. He's made a handful of pipes from entire burls. He's made 360-degree birdseye pipes that are as interesting as they are structurally unsound (in order for a bowl to have 360-degree birdseye, the chamber and heel have to be in the center of the burl, which is soft and prone to cracking). He's made a number of pipes with foot-long pieces of ox horn (some of which were actually sold a few years ago). He's made ducks and fish. He's made walking sticks that incorporate functioning pipes. And those are the ones that words can capture. There are gadget pipes that simply defy description.
Luigi Radice lives to make pipes. Born in 1939, he started his pipe making career at Castello in 1960. He left Castello to help found Caminetto with Peppino Ascorti in 1968, working there until that brand was dissolved in 1979 (to be later resurrected by Roberto Ascorti a few years later). In 1980, he founded Radice. More than thirty-five years after its inception, he's still making pipes. And having a lot of fun doing so.
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