Castello Old Sea Rock SC 23 Apple 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.’

This Castello is quite special, the reasons for which I shall now explain. First, this is an ‘SC’ sized Castello from the late-1950s to mid-1960s; it predates both the uppercase ‘K’ and lowercase, circled ‘k’ sizing and grading system, which began in the later 1960s and 1982 respectively. It also sports a rhinestone as its stem logo instead of a white bar, which indicates that it was imported to the US when it was first sold (due to trademark conflicts with existing US pipe companies). It is also an Old Sea Rock, which was a US-only finish at the time, and which in this iteration is quite different from the OSR finish used today. The pipe also has a very rare, amber-toned lucite stem and military mount style ferrule. On a last note, this pipe looks like it might have a bare plateau rim. It’s difficult to tell due to the nature of the finish, so I may be wrong, but it does look like the uneven texture of plateau briar, which would be yet another rare property to add to this already singular Castello pipe.

The condition is great. There’s some rim darkening, but it is not a very noticeable imperfection due to the dark, stony finish/plateau of the pipe’s top.

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.79 / 20.06mm

Bowl Depth: 1.38″ / 35.05mm

Weight: 1.4oz / 40g