Castello Trademark 4K 56 Smooth Bulldog Estate Briar Pipe, Italian Estates

Description

Founded in 1947 by Carlo Scotti, Castello quickly became known for producing some of the finest smoking pipes in the world. Over the years, the people involved in making Castello pipes has changed – such as Luigi Radice and Sergio Ascorti, who developed their skills in the Cantu workshop before leaving to start Caminetto, or the handing of the reigns of the company to Francisco ‘Kino’ Coppo after Scotti’s passing – but the superlative quality of Castello pipes has not. It is not without reason that Castello is known as ‘the Italian Dunhill.’

When this Castello landed on my desk, I thought it looked a little strange. It’s beautifully finished, being a KKKK grade pipe from the workshop’s Trademark line, and it features a distinctive hardwood (briar, I think) stem inlay. While the inlay is a less common, extra adornment sometimes used by Castello, nothing about the pipe seemed out of the ordinary—except the shape. While Castello don’t always stamp the shape code on their pipes, this one helpfully features the “56” denotation, though if you’re mostly familiar with contemporary Castello pipes, you’ll likely wonder if that was an error. After all, the 56 today is a quarter-bent, broad-bowled bulldog, reminiscent of the mid-century Dunhill PO Quaint shape. This one, on the other hand, is a tall, and uniquely long shanked, straight saddle bulldog. So, is the shape code a stamping error? No. It’s just that this particular shape hasn’t been in production by Castello for 20 years, being switched out for the aforementioned Dunhill-esque shape in 2005.

The condition is good. Some wear to the rim, including some minor inner rim charring, and slight handling marks.

 

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.81 / 20.57mm

Bowl Depth: 1.76″ / 44.70mm

Weight: 2.0oz / 58g