Caminetto Ascorti Radice Era Excellence Extra Partially Rusticated Sitter Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

Caminetto was, and is to this day, a decisive figure in the history of Italy’s pipe workshop tradition. After spending time developing their skills in the Castello workshop, Guiseppe Ascorti and Luigi Radice left to found their own venture, which they named, “Caminetto.” Here, Ascorti and Radice were able to create their own now-classic shapes and finishes, such as the rusticated “Business,” and the carved, wax-drip “New Dear.”

Among the pipes that have come out of the Caminetto workshop over the last half-century, there is one subset that has become a singular focus for collectors, perhaps more so than any other. That subset is early Caminetto pipes or, rather, the earliest Caminetto pipes. These pipes belong to what has come to be known as the “Ascorti Radice,” or “Ascorti/Radice” era, for reasons that will soon become apparent.

Caminetto was founded around 1968, beginning as a small workshop with Guiseppe Ascorti and Luigi Radice as its principal pipe makers. A third individual, Gianni Davoli, entered the picture shortly thereafter, acting as a distributor and sales representative for Ascorti and Radice’s pipes. These pipes were incredibly successful, leading to expansions of the workshop and, ultimately, a production model that didn’t suit either of its founders. While the workshop was by no means a factory in the traditional sense, the manufacturing of Caminetto pipes was standardized and compartmentalized, meaning Ascorti and Radice didn’t have the same control over the pipes they made as had been the case when they started. The stamping of the pipes is typically taken to be reflective of this, with the earliest Caminetto pipes bearing the names of Ascorti and Radice, and later pipes dropping this convention (even while the two were still an integral part of the workshop).

This high-grade, Excellence Extra Caminetto belongs to that first “Ascorti-Radice era” of Caminetto pipes, and though it is quite different to the typical designs the workshop would later settle on, there are nonetheless elements that prefigure the “Caminetto aesthetic.” For one, such large, full bent sitters were a prominent fixture in the Caminetto shape chart once it had been fully developed, and in that regard, there is something prototypical about the design seen here. Instead of a full rustication, this one is only partly so, but again, the style of the sections that are hand-carved are very much in line with the “Business” finish that would become central to Caminetto’s output. Perhaps the most obvious sign of things to come, on the other hand, is the pipe’s Lucite mouthpiece, with the asymmetric saddle cut that would become a signature for Caminetto pipes in the years that followed.

This pipe is completely unsmoked. There’s a couple of what look to be small nicks on the outer rim, though quite minor. I’ve adjusted the price to reflect them in any case.

Details:

Length: 6.2″ / 157.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.83 / 21.08mm

Bowl Depth: 1.96″ / 49.78mm

Weight: 1.7oz / 50g