Ascorti KS Smooth Apple 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.

While Ascorti & Radice’s Caminetto was a prime example of a high-end Italian pipe make, it was one that focused—as Italian workshops often do—on rugged, rusticated and carved finishes, with smooth, grain-forward pipes being far less common in its output. After the first dissolution of Caminetto, Ascorti and Radice parted ways and, in the time since, the two began putting a greater emphasis on such pipes, in addition to their rusticated and sandblasted wares. Thus we have pipes like this one, made by the Ascortis. A plump, quarter-bent apple whose figure almost verges into the territory of the hawkbill, the bowl has deservedly been given a light, brown, smooth polished finish, so as to highlight the wealth of bird’s-eye grain covering either flank.

The condition is good. Some wear to the rim and slight scratches on the bowl.

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.96 / 24.38mm

Bowl Depth: 1.84″ / 46.73mm

Weight: 2.3oz / 66g