Ascorti Business Rusticated Stack Estate Briar Pipe, Italian Estates

Description

Ascorti belongs to a historic lineage in Italian artisan pipe-making. Guiseppe ‘Peppino’ Ascorti was first employed as a pipe-maker in the 1950s, in Carlo Scotti’s Castello workshop in Cantu. There he met Luigi Radice, and in the 1960s the two decided to leave Castello to create their own pipe-making workshop, under the name ‘Caminetto.’ At the end of the 1970s, Guiseppe Ascorti and Luigi Radice left Caminetto and once more decided to start new ventures. Luigi Radice founded the Radice pipe workshop, and Guiseppe’s son Roberto Ascorti, who had also worked in the Caminetto workshop since he was a child, decided to create a workshop under his own name. Roberto was joined not only by his father, but also many of the talented craftsmen who had formerly worked for Caminetto. In 1980, the Ascorti workshop was born.

The Business is the Ascorti workshop’s interpretation of the quintessentially Italian pebble-dash rustication motif, one seen, in various styles, in the pipes of Castello, Savinelli Becker, and Caminetto. This particular Business is an especially jagged and stony variation on the theme, hand-carved over an uncommonly large stack, or chimney, bowl shape. Further uncommon and interesting design additions include a briar shank extension and an asymmetrical saddle stem, which used to be standard on Ascorti pipes, in the years following the Ascortis’ departure from Caminetto.

The condition is great. The one thing worth noting is that there is significant darkening on the inner rim. I think that most of this would come off with deeper cleaning, but I prefer to leave rusticated rims of this sort to the buyer’s discretion, as everyone has their own preferences as to how thorough a scrubbing they want to commit to in that regard.

 

Details:

Length: 6″ / 152.4mm

Bowl Width: 0.82 / 20.82mm

Bowl Depth: 2.27″ / 57.65mm