Castello Collection 4K Smooth Bent Billiard Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

About this pipe:

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 Guiseppe 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 (uppercase before 1982, lowercase after), the latter being the highest possible for standard-sized pipes. This one, for example, looks to be a quite uncommon example of a Lucite army mount rendition of the workshop’s shape 65 bent billiard, and quite rightly attained a full 4 “k” grade on account of the tight, consistent straight grain running 360 degrees around its bowl.

This pipe is completely unsmoked and comes with its original box and sleeve.

Details:

Length: 5.8″ / 147.3mm

Bowl Width: 0.90 / 22.86mm

Bowl Depth: 1.82″ / 46.22mm

Weight: 1.6oz / 46g