The Caminetto brand was created in 1968 by Giuseppe Ascorti and Luigi Radice and has been a staple of Italian handmade pipes ever since. The most sought-after pieces are from the first period, which ended in 1979 when Luigi Radice left the company. The easiest way to date a Caminetto pipe is by looking at the stem logo, since it changed several times over the years.

What you see on this beautiful — but in my honest opinion, unfortunately colored — pipe is the very first logo Caminetto ever used: the “super mustache.” That puts this piece at a minimum of 45 years old. I graded it as A4 only because of some remaining darkening on the rim — normally I would take care of that, but in this case I didn’t have the right green stain on hand and didn’t want to risk damaging the original finish without a proper way to restore it.