Caminetto Business Rusticated Billiard Estate Briar Pipe, Italian Estates

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.”

The history of Caminetto can be separated multiple ways, with several different periodizations to use when dividing one pipe for another. Pipedia, for example, has an excellent, deep-dive article on the many “eras” of the workshop. In terms of style, one could argue that there are two main eras of Caminetto pipes: one from approximately 1968 to 1980; and another from approximately 1985 to the present. While Caminettos produced after the mid-1980s did not immediately change in style, they have gradually moved away from that of the period ending in 1980. The latter were more “rugged,” while the former have, over time, become more elegant and refined. Nowhere is this more evident than in the “Business” line, which originally featured a very stony approach to rustication closer to the early Castello Sea Rock. Based on the nomenclature, this Business billiard will have been made toward the end of the 1980s, and it’s quite fascinating to note the way the texture of that finish sits somewhere right in between the “old” Business and the “new” one, from the last few decades. It’s more rough and rugged than a Business made today would look, yet a little more sharp and granular than a 1960s or ’70s Business, with the result being distinct even within Caminetto’s portfolio when viewed as a whole.

The condition is very good. Some inner rim darkening.

Details:

Length: 5.9″ / 149.8mm

Bowl Width: 0.85 / 21.59mm

Bowl Depth: 1.77″ /44.95mm

Weight: 1.7oz / 50g