Radice Rind O T/B Twin Bore Rusticated Canadian w/ 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. In any case, this Rind is a little rarer than most, and for two reasons. For one, it features an interesting, occasional motif in Radice’s design approach, that of a shank carved to emulate the knuckles and nodes of bamboo. In art history, this practice is sometimes known by the somewhat clunky term “skeuomorphism,” that being when a design element that was originally functional becomes a matter of aesthetics, instead. After all, bamboo was once used to make up for a shortage of good briar, which enabled carvers to use less briar by having bamboo take the place of the shank section. But, as it turns out, bamboo looks very nice on a pipe, one can create much the same visual effect with a more sturdy medium, like briar itself—hence the Radice motif. This is why this Rind is stamped with an “O,” signaling an extra, uncommon design element. As for why it’s also stamped “T/B,” that’s another signature, albeit uncommon, design element for Radice: a twin bore stem. Instead of the draft hole running straight to a single opening at the button, Radice’s twin bore has it branch into two openings at either side, helping to disperse smoke so that one can get a fuller and slightly cooler experience of one’s favorite blend.

The condition is great. Slight rim darkening.

Details:

Length: 5.7″ / 144.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.87 / 22.09mm

Bowl Depth: 1.56″ / 39.62mm

Weight: 1.6oz / 48g