pipestem’s place

I have not attempted to post pictures of my entire collection. Rather, what you will see on this page is a representative sampling of that collection. Those of you who have seen my collection may miss a favorite piece or wonder where that old Collection piece went to. You can be assured I haven’t sold any of them. All of them are still at home, I just chose not to showcase that particular pipe. I’ll start the photos with a beautiful Castello 84 in the new FLAME finish. Castello says the FLAME is a natural evolution of the earlier EPOCA finish. I believe this is one of the best examples they have ever created.

▲ Over the years, Castello has produced several limited edition pieces. In 2001, they produced a wavy shank version for the RTDA show. The pipe in the upper left of this picture is pipe #1 from that set. It is a 1k Fiammata and is a nice piece. The pipe in the bottom center of this picture was featured in Pipes and Tobacco Magazine Spring 2000 (Volume 5, Number 1) in an article entitled ‘Elegance Limited’. That year, Castello issued a limited edition set of 24 pipes of different shapes but all with the new FLAME finish.My pipe is pictured on page 21 of that issue. If the FLAME is a natural evolution of the Epoca finish, then one should note the evolution within the FLAME series from the original 84 FLAME and the one pictured at the top of the page which is a 2006 year group pipe. In the upper right is what is known as a ‘Vintage’ set. In Castello’s literature, ‘Vintage’ is a special assortment of pipes set aside from 1970-2000 in very limited numbers of about 20 pieces a year. The two pieces I have are NATURAL VERGIN and OLD SEA ROCK BRIAR.

▲ Castello makes a beautiful smooth pipe. They have several grades of smooth pipes: COLLECTION, “CASTELLO”, TRADEMARK, and some special finishes such as PERLA NERA and OCCHIO di PERNICE. I’ve selected five nice examples of their work for this pictorial . Pictured in the upper right is my highest grade pipe. This one is a 3k COLLECTION FIAMMATA. This pipe won an award at C.O.R.P.S. when they celebrated the year of Castello and was best Castello pipe in show that year. The pipe at bottom left is quite unusual as it it is a hawkbill sitter. The other three pipes are 4k Collection pieces and the bottom right sports a very nice gold band. While I’m not a big fan of accoutrements on pipes, I think in this case, it’s a nice accent.

▲ Continuing with the smooth pipes, these 8 pipes comprise a couple of finishes. The two pipes on the bottom row and the right one on the next to bottom row are OCCHIO di PERNICE pipes. The bottom left piece was given to me by my wife on our first wedding anniversary. The bottom right pipe was presented to me by Bob Hamlin and what made it even more special was the fact that Mike McCain received his first OCCHIO di PERNICE pipe at the same time. The third one is actually older than the other two but did not become available till after we received those first few pipes. The other pipes pictured here are in Castello “CASTELLO” finish. The pipe in the upper left corner was my very first Castello 84.

▲ Here’s a selection of GG and GGG sized pipes. These are the largest sized Castello pipes. From left to right and top to bottom we have displayed: GG TRADEMARK, GG 2k COLLECTION, G CASTELLO” (although only stamped G, this pipe is huge and has great grain. I can only imagine the pipemaker’s dismay when he discovered the flaw that caused them to circumcise this pipe), GG “CASTELLO”. GG OLD ANTIQUARI, GG OLD ANTIQUARI with silver band, GGG OLD ANTIQUARI, and GG SEA ROCK BRIAR. These pipes smoke cool and last a long time but are definitely pipes I need to sit and relax with. There’s no way I can smoke one of these pipes and do anything else.

▲ Over the years, Castello has featured different colored stems. I have five with various colors. Starting at 12 O’clock and going clockwise, we have a yellow swirl stem on a overly large KK SEA ROCK BRIAR, a swirl brown stem on a KKKK SEA ROCK BRIAR, an orange swirl stem on a 4k OLD ANTIQUARI, a red swirl stem with white spacer on a 2k COLLECTION, and finally, a white stem on a red 3k SEA ROCK BRIAR. This red and white combination is somewhat rare in production.

Several years ago, Castello offered their customers the opportunity to have a seven day set made. I was so excited to hear this. I quickly spoke with Marco Parascenzo about  it and much to my chagrin, they did not offer this opportunity for shape 84. A couple years passed and I had forgotten about the seven day sets until one day I got an email from Marco and he told me that there was the possibility that I could in fact, get a seven day set of shape #84. Needless to day I was thrilled and quickly said yes.

▲ Pictured here are those seven pipes. All are ‘G’ sized pipes. From left to right and top to bottom, we have a CASTELLO “CASTELLO” with partial carving, a SEA ROCK BRIAR with two small studs on the nomenclature plate which make it appear to be attached rather than a part of the shank itself, another SEA ROCK BRIAR with pi carving, an OLD ANTIQUARI, a NATURAL VERGIN, a PERLA NERA, and finally a TRADEMARK. All pipes are stamped with my initials, and they came with a nice seven day set presentation case. This was truly a great addition to my collection.

▲ Some of my favorite pipes are older pipes. Here you see a selection of older pieces. The top row of pipes are all SEA ROCK BRIAR pipes from the SC stamping era. The two pipes in the center are also SEA ROCK BRIAR pipes and are the oldest pipes I have. These two pre-date the SC era and have no size stampings on them. I believe these to be some of the oldest shape 84s made and come from the early to mid-1950s. I’ve never seen an 84 stamped ‘mi reserva’ or one I was sure came from the 1940s, but if I ever do, you can be sure, I’ll do all I can to add it to the collection. The bottom row contains to more SC era SEA ROCK BRIAR pipes on the outside. The center bottom pipe is not as old as the others, but it is the oldest smooth pipe I have being the only large K version of a Castello ‘CASTELLO’ finish in the collection.

▲ Although I only collect one shape pipe from one single maker, I find there is infinite variety in these pipes. To add to the variety, Castello does some wonderful carving that adds to the overall pipe. While I have many with interesting carvings or rustication added to the pipe, here’s five of them that clearly show the creative genius of the Castello workshop. At the top left is a very nice CASTELLO finish with interesting carving along the bottom of bowl and the entire shank. To the right of that one is another CASTELLO with partial carving on the shank. And centered in the picture is perhaps the holy grail for Castello 84 collectors, a drip wax version of the EPOCA finish. I’ve never seen another one anywhere. The bottom left pipe is a spiral cut COLLECTION piece and finally the bottom right is a finish that resembles an armadillo hide. It is very interesting.

▲ My friend and fellow Castello 84 collector, Mike McCain and I have a running joke. Whenever either of us acquires a new or new to us pipe, we always ask the other how it smokes. The response is ALWAYS, just like a SEA ROCK. It is amazing that Castello puts the same effort on smoking qualities on their lowest grade pipes as they do on their highest grade pipes. With that introduction, here are some of my SEA ROCK BRIAR pipes. These pipes have various stampings: SEA ROCK BRIAR, OLD SEA ROCK BRIAR, NATURAL VERGIN and so forth, but when you get down to it, all Castello pipes smoke like a SEA ROCK BRIAR pipe.

▲ As I finish sharing this collection, here is what I believe to be my favorite finish of all. Sure, nothing smokes like a SEA ROCK, Epoca’s are rare, FLAME pipes are incredibly beautiful, and who can argue with the beauty of a COLLECTION FIAMMATA straight grain pipe, but for day to day smoking pleasure, I think the sand blasted OLD ANTIQUARI pipe delivers the best and most enjoyable smoking experience. You get the tactile sensation from the blast finish while retaining the ability to appreciate the grain of the briar. To me, it’s the best overall finish in production. So here are a few of my OLD ANTIQUARI pipes that haven’t been showcased before. From left to right, top to bottom, they are: a brown GG pipe that is really a good G sized pipe. The next pipe is a G stamped black pipe with silver that has a marginally big brother shown on GG GGG pipes. Next is a nice brown G sized pipe followed by a small 3k black pipe with a nice gold band. On the bottom row is another small 3k pipe and lastly a nice reddish brown 4k pipe with an extra long shank.

This collection is award winning, having won at least once at every venue it’s been shown. Shown here are the awards from various great shows such as CPCC, C.O.R.P.S. and St Louis. Forgive me if I’m a bit proud of this collection.

Well, there you have it, my collection of Castello shape #84 pipes. Some like them, some hate them, but if you really take the time to look at them, I challenge you to find a more intriguing, interesting, complex shape. As I said before , I have never regretted for a single moment, selling all my pipes and focusing solely on this pipe. Happy smoking.