Spring 99 Volume IV Issue 2

I. Cultural Icons
In Giancarlo Savinelli’s office, just around corner from the famous Savinelli shop in the heart of Milan, the ruggedly good-looking great grandson of the founder, dressed fashionable in a light-colored suit with a dark blue shirt, designer tie and handmade booths argues was the analysis of Italian schools of pipemaking developed earlier in this story [see PipeSmoke, Winter 98/99]. His doctorate in political science has trained him to be a cogent arguer always ready to document his thesis “There aren’t three schools, only two: the industrial, and the artisan. The first is the factory tradition and the second is the Pesaro school of Ser Jacobo, Mastro, and the others.

What about Castello Ascorti, Radice, Ardor, and the other smaller producers north of Milan, not to mention Brebbia, Savinelli’s major competitor? “Luciano Buzzi’s father Eneo (Brebbia) and the mine started together, so that so that is the industrial tradition he says Savinelli was responsible for changing the image of the Italian pipe by elevated it, and only then was Carlo Scotty Castello able to specialize by using the machine made models as a launching point for handmade variations. Ascorti and Radice come direct from the Castello tradition.”

Giancarlo explains that, with few exceptions, the northern makers have developed their images from industrial models. The Pesaro school is baroque, ornate, and owes it’s concept to Danish handmade pipes of the 1960s and that mode sometimes influences northern pipemakers a bit. But mostly it is the “series” pipe made in factories, that conditions the northern school’s work. The school includes pipemakers Ascorti, Radice, Castello, and, around Gavirate, where Savinelli established his factory half a century ago, companies such Ardor, Talamona, and Molina. The pipes produced by these makers have a cleaned-line aesthetic, only baroque when they want to imitate.

"It's also in the character of the people," he says. "The northern mentality has a work ethic conditioned by factory culture and strong notions of community organization. Without that, industry is not possible. The south [in which he includes Pesaro] is more individualistic, anarchistic, and creative. It's a question of sensibility." Regional bias is strong in Italy.

Giancarlo defines Savinelli's company culture as classic factory production. Castello, he says, moved away from that by producing fewer models and finishes in more individualized and somewhat larger shapes. Savinelli divides his production these days into the "Classic" series and the "Autograph" fine of unique handmade models. He believes that Castello and the other makers who grew out of Castello are midway between. "It starts with the machine and develops from there," he comments.

According to Savinelli, northern Italy was dominated by one major pipe factory at the beginning of the 20th century: Fratelli Rossi (Rossi Brothers), of Varese, with 900 workers producing up to 12 million pipes annually Most of these pipes were inexpensive, produced for a mass-market, in the days when a pipe was part of every man's equipment. "The workers used to migrate regularly to Saint Claude, France," says Savinelli, "where there was an annual production of more than 30 million pipes, whenever it was slow in Varese, or if they thought they could make better money Some came back to Italy with a different kind of 'know-how', because the French industry always had a large share of the high-grade market in England, Germany, and the U.S.. After World War II, when demand increased, Italy began to produce cheap pipes again. My father wanted to change the image and capture some of the quality market."

Giancarlo believes that the timing and location were right, with plenty of briar available in Italy, as well as good labor, and a rebounding national economy "My father moved the goal-posts between 1945 and 1950, and then began to expand production and build up the factory capacity" he says. "It's really a very simple concept: quality products and natural finishes. Because my father was able to speak several languages and instinctively understood the need to develop an international image through promotion and marketing, all Italian pipernakers must be thankful to Achille Savinelli for reforming the image of Italian pipes.

II. The Time and the Place
Milan is the capital of Italy's industrial north; high fashion, global finance, heavy industry, vanguard architecture and design, and colossal smog dominate.

In the midst of the sprawling city, in the old cobblestoned center of narrow streets and trolley cars, is the jewel-box shop that the first Achille Savinelli (b. 1855) opened in 1876. Located near the great Renaissance church II Duomo and the La Scala Opera House, Savinelli is a landmark, a sanctified stop on a pipe pilgrimage.

Along with the Duomo and La Scala, and a few other landmarks, Savinelli makes Milan worth a visit. For it is here that the admirer of the classic and modem pipe so esteemed worldwide can see what made the name so famous. This elegant store carries mostly its own product; Savinelli's 123-year-old shop is to the Italian pipe what Dunhill's is to its English counterpart.

But there's little time to linger. "Do you drive Italian style or American style?" asks Roberto Pome, Director of Marketing, another urbane, well dressed Milanese who speaks several languages fluently. We must follow him to the factory, 50 kilometers northwest of Milan, and we are led on a 100 mph chase up the Autostrada to Gavirate. This small town is central to Italy's pipernaking traditions, for it was near here that Fratelli Rossi was located.

At the factory, Roberto, whose father worked with Savinelli before him, introduces us to Marco Fumei da Corta, director of production, an articulate veteran of the pipe manufacturing trade. According to Marco, Savinelli produces about 150,000 pipes per year that carry the Savinelli stamp, and more under contract for other companies. About 30,000 are for the U.S. market.

We are shown the entire production process, and we notice a few differences from other factories. Of the three stages of cutting the bowls from briar blocks, two are machined and the last is hand-held. All the unique shapes marked "handmade" are completely shaped on an abrasive wheel. Of the entire production, only one in 2,000 is deemed good enough for the "Jubilee" series. As they turn only top-grade "XX" blocks and plateau, mostly from Sardinia and Tuscany, the reject rate is low. With Savinelli, shape and finish choice for the consumer is legion: 72 standard shapes multiplied by all the finishes offer more than 3,000 possibilities.

One finish that only the "inner circle" of Savinelli can observe being made is the "Sea Coral - Capri," a rusticated and oil-treated limited edition presently available in only one shape, a long, narrow-stemmed, high-bowled billiard with a silver band and hand-cut ebonite mouthpiece. This classic is a commemorative to Giancarlo's father Achille, who favored the shape and finish.

When asked about the "schools," Marco reduces the answer with a production chief's efficiency: "There are only artisan hand-mades and factory-produced pipes. But then, when a factory like ours produces handmades in the same manner as a small artisan workshop, how do you classify them?" he asks with a sly smile. "After all, many of the fancy shapes that look handmade can be produced on a machine with the right die... and most are! To cut a pipe all by hand is actually efficient, however slow, because it allows the pipernaker to follow the grain and feel the wood. There's less waste."

Giancarlo appears at the factory, this time in jeans and leather jacket, having ridden his motorcycle up from Rome. Tuning in to the discussion, he adds with a wicked grin, "Ask some of the artisan shops to show you the fraizing machines they keep hidden in a backroom. Do you think that anyone who publishes a shape chart can produce hundreds of the same pipe individually, by hand, with any consistency? Why bother?"

Continued on next page...

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