Castello 2024 Collection 4K Smooth Bulldog Estate Briar Pipe, Italian Estates

Description

Founded in 1947 by Carlo Scotti, Castello quickly became known for producing some of the finest smoking pipes in the world. Over the years, the people involved in making Castello pipes has changed – such as Luigi Radice and Sergio Ascorti, who developed their skills in the Cantu workshop before leaving to start Caminetto, or the handing of the reigns of the company to Francisco ‘Kino’ Coppo after Scotti’s passing – but the superlative quality of Castello pipes has not. It is not without reason that Castello is known as ‘the Italian Dunhill.’

Castello’s Collection line sits near the very top of the workshop’s smooth finishes. Aside from the rusticated Natural Vergin line, Collection pipes typically wear Castello’s simplest, lightest staining so as to showcase the superior grain patterns necessary to qualify for such an accolade. Once it has been established that a Castello has attained a Collection grade, these pipes are assigned an additional grade that further differentiates them according to just how good the graining is. Since around 1969, the letter “K” has been used to denote subdivisions within Castello grades, running from one “K” to four “K”s, the latter being the highest possible for standard-sized pipes. That this Castello attained a Collection “KKKK” grade is unsurprising, given the tight striations running around its bowl and the veritable halo of “bird’s-eye” at its rim. What is surprising, on the other hand, is the shape. To put things into context, though shape numbers are not typically included on Castello pipes themselves these days, the workshop still mostly operates according to a shape chart, albeit one with a little more room than most for differing interpretations of those shapes. This one would be a shape 58, an already quite rare one and the workshop’s house bent bulldog design. What’s interesting about this rendition, however, is how uncommonly high the bead-lines dividing the bowl’s upper and lower sections are, making for a very different kind of bulldog, even by Castello’s standards.

The condition is very good. Minor inner rim darkening and chamber slightly over-reamed at the lip. The pipe comes with its original box and sleeve.

Details:

Length: 5.9″ / 149.86mm

Bowl Width: 0.85 / 21.59mm

Bowl Depth: 1.31″ / 33.27mm

Weight: 1.6oz / 48g