Castello Sea Rock Briar 3K Partially Rusticated Billiard w/ Lucite Army Mount Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

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 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.”

The Castello workshop crafts pipes in a number of finishes, but if there’s one finish that has come to define to define the venerable Italian make, it’s the Sea Rock. More than perhaps anyone else, it appears that Castello proved that rusticated pipes can be just as high-grade as their smooth and sandblasted counterparts. This Sea Rock Briar is a classic example of that. Not just because it was the Sea Rock Briar that first put Castello, and Italian pipes writ large, on the map as regards high-grade rusticated finishes, but also because the design of this one calls to mind some of the first pipe that Carlo Scotti’s fledgling workshop produced. It is a fairly traditional billiard, though it bears a rather distinctive fitment, in the form of a Lucite army mount. While pipe companies had made army mount pipes long before Castello did, its use of black Lucite for its floc mounts in the 1950s was highly unconventional. Yet it would also turn out to be both visually appealing—especially paired with the Sea Rock Briar’s near-black tones—and very practical. Such pipes have been part of Castello’s portfolio ever since, though they are markedly less common than the workshop’s more standard push fitments.

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

Details:

Length: 6.1″ / 154.9mm

Bowl Width: 0.86 / 21.84mm

Bowl Depth: 1.67″ / 42.41mm

Weight: 1.6oz / 46g