Ascorti Business KS Rusticated Hawkbill Estate Briar Pipe, Italian Estates

Description

Ascorti belongs to a historic lineage in Italian artisan pipe-making. Guiseppe “Peppino” Ascorti was first employed as a pipe-maker in the 1950s, in Carlo Scotti’s Castello workshop in Cantu. There he met Luigi Radice, and in the 1960s the two decided to leave Castello to create their own pipe making workshop, under the name “Caminetto.” At the end of the 1970s, Guiseppe Ascorti and Luigi Radice left Caminetto and once more decided to start new ventures. Luigi Radice founded the Radice pipe workshop, and Guiseppe’s son Roberto Ascorti, who had also worked in the Caminetto workshop since he was a child, decided to create a workshop under his own name. Roberto was joined not only by his father, but also many of the talented craftsmen who had formerly worked for Caminetto. In 1980, the Ascorti workshop was born.

The first dissolution of the Caminetto workshop, which occurred at the end of the 1970s, would ultimately give way to three new makes: Radice, Ascorti, and, later, a new Caminetto (four, if one counts Capitello). Of all of the makes that emerged after Caminetto’s initial demise, Ascorti would be the one to “carry the torch,” as it were, when it came to replicating the aesthetic of its predecessor. This included much of the nomenclature of Caminetto pipes, hence the Ascorti Business was not only very similar to the Caminetto Business, but carried the same name.

This Business is highly evocative of the old Caminetto make, not only in the style and name of its finish, but also its shaping. Like Castello, hawkbill renditions were fairly prominent in Caminetto’s output, though the latter’s tended to feature a great deal more heft and overall ruggedness as regarded form. This Ascorti rendition very much leans into the style of the latter, with a towering, egg-like bowl hanging from its hallmark arcing shank and mouthpiece.

The condition is great. Minor wear to the rim.

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.93 / 23.62mm

Bowl Depth: 1.98″ / 50.29mm

Weight: 2.1oz / 62g