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When Sykes visited the Radices with Luca di Piazza in 2010, the first things Luigi personally showed off to them (after finishing the work he was in the middle of when they arrived) were not the highest-graded pipes at hand, but those Gigi happened to find the most interesting results of his tinkering: tiny pipes, a pipe with three bowls, and a pipe that somehow, defying all consensus on the nature of briar, came out with 360 degrees of birdseye. The Radice family's reputation is first and foremost that they are makers of great pipes, and this no doubt has a great deal to do with the absolutely dogged work ethic Gigi has instilled by example. As such, one might suppose that, after decades of doing so, to the elder Radice making a great pipe became like walking, like putting one foot in front of the other. It should be no surprise then that Luigi Radice's fascination came to lie more in what he can come up with outside of the usual, rather than with the excellent, but more orthodox smoking instruments his eyes and hands learned to produce as a matter of course.
What of his sons, Marzio and Gianluca? Judging by certain Radice pipes of recent years, they're finding their own outlet in extending the Radice style into more modern Italian forms. These days, in fact, Luigi's sons are producing most Radice pipes; their father may not exactly be what you'd call retired (Luigi doesn't seem the sort to ever want to stop working), but he has finally settled into enjoying more of his tinkering, and his hard-working progeny taking the reigns of Radice as a brand, handling most of the regular production. Gianluca and Marzio certainly have the experience for that, as they've been working alongside their father since before many of us were even in high school.
But what are these more modern Italian forms mentioned? For outside examples I would point to the type of designs we today see coming steadily from Luciano, quite often from Caminetto, and pretty regularly from Mimmo Provenzano. These are shapes that have a certain underlying Italian neoclassical element, yet are often (but not always) trimmer, with sleeker lines that suggest possible influence coming from the pipe designs of American artisans who've themselves combined Danish and old English classic influences. So far this kind of shaping, what I've called neo-neoclassical for lack of a better term, still only makes up a minority of Radice pipes, maybe one-out-of-ten. I wouldn't read into that low ratio too much though, as five years ago they made up zero-out-of-ten Radice pipes; for that matter, five years ago, none of the other makers I mentioned as examples of this style were working in it either.
If Marzio and Gianluca take Radice pipemaking more in this direction, the process of change... wouldn't exactly be a change. The "classic Radice" look established by their father was itself the result of a long evolution, beginning where he began circa 1960, at Castello, changing wildly at Caminetto (the old-school 1970s Caminetto look being a product of Luigi Radice and Guisepe Ascorti, the latter also having been a Castello artisan), then moving to a distinct, yet still Castello-influenced approach following Luigi's going independent in 1980.
Luigi Radice developed a Radice style, and worked hard to make the Radice name known; he also delighted (and continues to do so) in creating pipes that were different. Now his own sons continue the Radice name while also doing a sort of tinkering of their own, peppering Radice's offerings with pipes of a style fresh and new — and working as hard as ever.
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