Castello Old Sea Rock SK 33 Rusticated Canadian 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.’

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. It may well be Castello more than anyone else that has proven that rusticated pipes can be as high-grade as their smooth and sandblasted counterparts. This stout, almost stubby, Canadian is a slight variation on the Sea Rock Briar, that being the Old Sea Rock. While the standard Sea Rock Briar has typically been a monotone black or brown finish, the Old Sea Rock shows off a distinctive “fumed” aesthetic, which would later be taken up by many an Italian make. As evinced by this one’s “S” format size code, which preceded the later “K” and “k” format codes, this Canadian will have been made between the late 1950s and mid-1960s. Its coarser, stony finish testifies to this, as Castello would come to modify the Sea Rock series over the following decades into its current, more granular pebble-dash stylings.

The condition is very good. Some finish fading on the rim.

 

Details:

Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.86 / 21.84mm

Bowl Depth: 1.62″ / 41.14mm

Weight: 2.0oz / 58g