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With the dollar low continuing, some pipe pundits are predicting a comeback for Italian pipes in America. Usually cheaper than their German or Danish counterparts, the Mediterranean carvers may cut a few corners in favour of higher output, but few people deny that Italy offers a lot of pipe for the buck.

Admittedly, there's a tendency among high-grade collectors to ignore the Italians - just as most of us prefer to eradicate selected memories of youth. After all, a great many people smoking Bangs and Chonos today once thought a Mastro or Ser Jac about as good as it could get. Reminders of their own gradual progression towards Chateau Margaux tastes appear to embarrass them, and they would much rather have us think they were born with a Barbi between their lips. Occasional derogatory remarks about Italian pipes can often be viewed in this context.

Also, Italian pipes aren't truly 'cheap'. That is something else long-time pipe collectors tend to overlook. They have probably forgotten the financial and psychological hurdles involved when briar ambitions first enter the value range of other serious investments. But newcomers still feel the agony keenly. After all, you can now buy the family a reasonable DVD recorder for the price of a higher-end Don Carlos… at the very least, expect some pangs of conscience when you choose the pipe.

Such comparisons aside, one must concede that most Italian brands are rather more affordable than their counterparts from northern Europe, sometimes offering quite staggering smooths at a fraction of the Danish price level. If you can accept a sandpit or two, you can be looking at the kind of grain only a millionaire will ever see on an Ivarsson. "I want all pipe smokers to be able to buy an excellent pipe," says Marco Biagini of Moretti, "including those who can't afford high grades."

High output

Quantity is the key factor. Typical Italian makers are geared to producing 1000+ pieces a year - and tend to adopt a prosaic philosophy about it. Despite flowery Mediterranean talk of art and passion, there's a calculated limit to their perfectionist ambition. South of the Alps, the amount of effort bestowed on an individual pipe is the result of hard-nosed arithmetics.

"Just about every Italian pipe maker I can think of relies on pipe making as a main, and often only, source of income," Rome-based journalist and estate dealer Laurence Steinman told Pfeifenbox in an interview a few months ago. "This means that spending an extra day rusticating a beautiful straight grain with a small flaw is almost impracticable." The formula is simple: if few people think the job worth doing, even fewer are likely to pay for it.

Of course, an essentially similar equation applies to Danish carvers - yet the variables assume wildly different values. People expect a $700 smooth from Scandinavia to be flawless, but they also will fork out fair compensation for a blasted piece by the same maker. Market preconceptions being what they are, rarity and high prices seem the exclusive domain of Germans and Danes. While it's not inherently impossible for makers elsewhere in Europe to invade the same niche, the hurdles of prejudice are hard to overcome. A handful of Italians are now espousing a cosmopolitan strategy of low-output perfectionism, but far more find it perfectly convenient to remain within their country's traditional role.

The choice is by no means entirely reluctant. Experience has taught Italy's carvers that medium prices and high production yield stable financial results - and their training enables them to capitalise on the insight. A relatively healthy infrastructure means that the industry can still give its novices a semblance of apprenticeship, something growingly uncommon in other parts of the pipe world. Many makers therefore boast uncanny skills of speed acquired in the workshops of Pesaro or Lombardy - the resulting efficiency forming a major ingredient of their professional pride. It would probably strike the majority of Italian makers as almost unethical to work at a slower, more fastidious pace.

Incidentally, even the most celebrated high-graders elsewhere admire such routine, and readily admit their own envy. "To survive in the middle class, you need to make a lot of pipes," says Germany's rising star Cornelius Mänz. "You have to be fast and nifty. Where do you learn that kind of skill? In factories and on manufacturing lines."

Mid-grade potential

It's these well-trained, mid-grade Italians that US collector and tamper maker Art Ruppelt thinks most likely to profit from a second boom - perhaps even rivalling the popularity of Italian brands in the 1990s. Citing names like Moretti and Cavicchi, he predicts first signs of an Italian renaissance at next month's Chicago pipe show. The main foundation for his analysis is the perception of a new generation of pipesters. They have progressed from basket pipes to respected factory brands - and right now, they are ready to take the next step.

"In recent years, people have come from cigars to pipes in droves," Art explains. "They didn't mind spending on tobacco, because they understood tobacco. But they were reluctant to spend big money on wood and accessories, being under the misguided impression that one can do pipes cheaper than cigars. They keyed in on the weed, ignoring the hardware. Now, as these people start to value the wood, you'll see renewed interest in the Italian lower to mid grades."

Premal Chheda of Smoker's Haven agrees: "The majority of pipe smokers in America are looking for large affordable pipes with excellent smoking qualities, and most tobacconists are willing to carry mid-priced Italian pipes versus expensive Danish and German briars. Many of the Italian pipe makers offer a range of quality handmade pipes starting at a little over $100, and progress in price is according to quality and size. By offering excellent affordable pipes, the Italians have established their brands with Americans, and gained trust and repeat purchases from their customers. When the 'average Joe' is ready to purchase a high-grade pipe for a special occasion, he may stick with the Italians."

Moving up

Premal's forecast could be shrewd. There are several signs that an Italian revival won't stop on the middle tier. For true aficionados of Italian pipes, it's almost irresistible to talk about the best, rather than the mainstream - and they feel the time is ripe to push their case. "It isn't a sacrilege anymore to state that Paolo Becker is on a par with the Danes," said Belgian collector Erwin Van Hove in a recent Pfeifenbox panel discussion. A small elite of Italian high-graders has been emerging for some time, and is now reaping increasing recognition elsewhere.

When the 'average Joe' takes the step after next, his first options might well include a Paolo or a higher-end Le Nuvole. You can buy an entry-grade Becker for $200, and be fondling a pipe that doesn't remind you of every Bjarne you have ever seen. And in a changing scene, such dissimilarity is a positive asset, as one well-known European collector likes to stress. He notes a definite hint of boredom attached to Danish classicism, these days: "Some pipe-lovers wish the world would move on an inch or two, and they're beginning to look towards countries formerly on the fringe of the high-grade map."

While low prices constitute the initial attraction of Italy's products, refreshed creativity spells the true magnetism of carvers like Becker or Maurizio Tombari. Like price, innovation is an essentially home-grown phenomenon - but the effect is substantially magnified by global developments. As Scandinavian hegemony gets re-assessed, Italy is one of the first countries in line for a power boost.

Revisiting Castello

Indeed, any such lift-off is quite likely to affect the entire spectrum of Italian pipe making. In a rather significant turnaround, one of Italy's most ambiguous brands is getting refreshed attention from an unexpected audience.

It seems that even the world's most discerning collectors are taking a new look at Castello. The expensive, but somewhat too pseudo-gentlemanly label was long disregarded by many connoisseurs. Freehand purists especially disapproved of its manufacturing line production methods, doubting that a so-called factory pipe could ever possess a 'soul'. Accordingly, admirers were even suspect as snobs and possible boors. Why else would anyone pay exorbitant prices for the hyped prestige of bourgeois accessoires? Among quality makes, only Dunhill could rival Castello for sneer potential - unfair as that may sound for lovers of either victim.

Lately, however, Castello's peculiar blend of timelessness and perpetual renewal has won a fresh wave of appreciation. "Their focus is on conservatism and change at the same time," enthuses the European collector cited earlier. "It has taken me a long while to realise how good they really are, from a design point of view. I now see that Castello is genuinely evolutionary. When they devise a new shape, it's both unusual and familiar - and that's a rare feat."

Complaining of "tired Danish masters producing beautiful look-alike butterflies", he says he no longer cares whether Carlo Scotti's soul-child is a factory brand or not. "I'm starting to redefine my understanding of what is unique," he adds. "Hand-made artisan pedigree can be pretty misleading as an all-important criterion. What's the big outrage about machines and manufacturing lines? At least a Castello is always a Castello."

(April 27, 2004)

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