Caminetto Ascorti Radice Era Excellence Extra Smooth Volcano 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 particular pipe is a doubly rare example of an Ascorti/Radice era Caminetto, and one of the especially high-grade Excellence Extra pipes from that time. Aside from its asymmetric saddle stem, it is quite unlike anything the workshop would later produce (the shape 105 being the closest, though still very different, example), though it does bear a subtle—though notable—resemblance to the Castello shape 55. As this early Caminetto is not entirely unlike another from that period, which came through with this one, I do wonder whether Ascorti and Radice might have planned to keep a 55-esque shape in their portfolio. As far as things went for Caminetto, this never transpired, though Radice has made plenty since going solo, decades after this pipe was made.

This pipe is completely unsmoked. Very slight handling marks.

Details:

Length: 6.5″ / 165.1mm

Bowl Width: 0.95 / 24.13mm

Bowl Depth: 1.57″ / 39.87mm

Weight: 1.8oz / 52g