Radice Rind Cherrywood with Faux Bamboo Estate Briar Pipe, Italian Estates

Description

Radice is one of the great Italian workshop pipe makes, belonging to a historic lineage of such workshops. The company began as a family affair, being established in 1980 by Luigi Radice, along with his son, Gianluca, and father, Paolo. But Radice’s pipe-making ‘family’ is a little larger than that. Prior to founding Radice, Luigi ran Caminetto, which he had founded with Guiseppe Ascorti in 1968. Prior to Caminetto, Radice had worked alongside Ascorti in the Castello factory, under the supervision of its owner, Carlo Scotti. It’s quite an impressive genealogy, which is clearly reflected in the quality of Radice pipes.

As with many Italian pipe-makers, Radice has its own, signature rustication style. Given Luigi Radice’s time working at Castello and Caminetto, one would presume that this would be a deep, rugged rustication, but the Rind finish is quite the opposite. While it is a similarly granular, pebble-dash approach to the Sea Rock Briar and Business finishes, the Rind is fine and shallow. In previous listings, I’ve wondered whether it was inspired not by stone formations but by citrus peel, hence the name. This Radice has something else that has become something of a signature for the make: a shank carved so as to resemble a bamboo extension. In the history of artifacts, this is known as skeuomorphism. It’s a fun concept. The shape is a kind of cherrywood, which could also be called skeuomorphic. I should really write something about pipe design and skeuomorphism sometime…

The condition is great. There’s some minor inner rim darkening, but I don’t see anything else that warrants highlighting.

Details:

Length: 6.4″ / 162.5mm

Bowl Width: 0.86 / 21.84mm

Bowl Depth: 1.7″ / 43.18mm

Weight: 1.9oz / 56g