Castello: Old America 2024 'Castello' Dublin (06.18) Tobacco Pipe

Founded in 1947 by Carlo Scotti, Castello's commitment to handcrafting high-quality pipes helped elevate the reputation of Italian pipes to luxury status. Furthermore, Castello's approach to shaping helped cultivate the bowl-centric and whimsical Italian neoclassic aesthetic. In 2020, Castello started the Old America series, honoring the American audience of the Italian workshop's pipes by choosing shapes from their legendary shape chart, greatly enhancing their size, and dressing them in a wide variety of finishes. Each pipe in the series also features a diamond-like inlay on the stem base, a callback to how Castello used to distinguish pipes made for U.S. distribution with a similar inlay, offering a retro look that old-school Castello fans are sure to appreciate.

For 2024, Castello has crafted two different shapes for the line: a stout, thick-walled Pot, and a towering, yet comparatively slender Dublin. The Dublin, as seen here, seems based on the workshop's "25-C" shape, an infrequently-seen variation of the "25" that pairs the stummel to a military-mounted stem arrangement. The transition is wide, and it gives way to a short, thick shank that looks positively willowy compared to the bowl, the shank reaching out to a domed mount of black acrylic, which pairs this pipe to a matching stem comprising a sleek taper to the button. Up front, the bowl stands on a firm, pronounced heel, and it grows remarkably tall walls that flare out expressively as they reach toward a broad, undulating rim, these walls overlooking a cavernous chamber that ensures lengthy smoking sessions. This particular piece is serialized as number six out of 18 total pieces, and it's dressed in the workshop's eponymous finish: covering the stummel in a warm, smoky, smooth stain that unveils handsome grain throughout.