Brebbia: Dating the Pipe from Lake Varese

Welcome: one clear change in 1968

Welcome. If your pipe says Brebbia or M.P.B., this guide helps you place it in time.

Brebbia is an Italian pipe maker. It works in the village of Brebbia, in the province of Varese, in the north of Italy.

The full old name is Manifattura Pipe Brebbia, the pipe factory of Brebbia. M.P.B. is its short form.

Our facts come from one Pipedia page, one pipephil.eu page, a company history page and two Brebbia catalogues of 2016.

Pipedia is an online pipe encyclopedia. Pipephil.eu is a website of pipe stamps and logos.

Each rule has a rank: high, medium or low. High means strong, agreed evidence.

Medium means one good source or a general rule. Low means a wide range or a weak hint.

The good news: one change does most of the work. In 1968 the stem logo changed to a diamond.

1947 to 1956

The start: Buzzi and Savinelli

In 1947 Enea Buzzi and Achille Savinelli started a pipe company together at Bosco Grosso di Brebbia.

Savinelli did the selling. Buzzi did the making.

These first pipes were sold under the name Savinelli, not Brebbia.

So a pipe from 1947 to 1953 belongs to the Savinelli story. Our Savinelli guide covers it.

In 1953 the two men split. Buzzi kept the factory, and Savinelli built his own.

Pipedia and pipephil.eu say the M.P.B. brand was born in 1953.

A company history page gives a later date: the buyout was complete on 22 June 1956.

The two dates do not fit together. We start the M.P.B. years in 1953, the earlier date, and name both sources.

Pipedia adds that the Savinelli name ran on without further rights up to 1956.

1968

The change of 1968

In 1968 the logo changed. The M.P.B. letters gave way to a simple diamond with a gold outline.

From then on, the brand was called just Brebbia.

Pipephil.eu and the company history page both give 1968 for this change.

The gold-outlined diamond is still the stem logo today.

From the 1990s, Enea's son Luciano Buzzi has run the company.

Recent decades

Brebbia today

Pipedia says that for some decades, small independent workshops have made many pipes sold under the Brebbia name.

Brebbia also makes 9mm filter pipes for northern Europe. Some use the Konex filter system of the German maker Vauen.

Brebbia's own catalogue of October 2016 says the old M.P.B. logo came back eight years earlier.

So M.P.B. is used again from about 2008, on some new lines. This matters for dating, as the traps below show.

The marks to read

Start with the stem. Look for a small gnome, a gold-outlined diamond, or a script letter B.

Then read the shank. Look for M.P.B., M.P.B.'s or the word Brebbia.

The gnome on the stem is the old logo. Pipephil.eu shows it from 1953 to 1956.

Pipephil.eu also shows a gnome with a slightly different outline, on a pipe made between 1956 and 1968.

A script B on the stem means the pipe was meant for Cellini, a second brand of Brebbia.

Other second brands are Jceberg, also written Iceberg, Jumbo and Vincenzo Lombardi.

Pipes of the Collection line can carry the signature of Enea Buzzi.

Line names seen on Brebbia pipes include Golden Gnome, Sun, Pura, Amaranto, Rubino Serie 83 and Gioia.

Others are Golden Natural, Silver Star, Lido, Lord, Nikotex, Linea Roma and Barbi Design.

Our sources give no start or end year for any of these lines.

Pura is a grade, not a cheap line. Brebbia uses it for briar with no fills and no visible flaws.

Stars beside the Brebbia stamp are a grade sign. More stars mean a higher grade.

Three stars is the top grade we have seen. We have not found an official Brebbia chart for the stars.

Traps we see often

An M.P.B. stamp is not always old. The logo came back around 2008 for some new lines.

These new M.P.B. pipes often have an acrylic stem, a silver ferrule stamped 925, or the name Museum Series.

So check the stem logo and the build before you call an M.P.B. pipe older than 1968.

Serie 1960 is a line name. The number 1960 is not the year the pipe was made.

Brebbia alone, with no M.P.B., does not prove a date after 1968. Pipephil.eu shows a pipe stamped Brebbia from before 1968.

Line names do not date a pipe in this guide. Our sources give them no years.

A pipe from 1947 to 1953 carries the Savinelli name, not Brebbia.

Some stamps are misspelled. Pipephil.eu shows an M.P.B. Lord stamped Bebbia. It is the same maker.

The logo on the stem

Read the stem logo first. It is the strongest clue for this brand.

The letters on the shank

M.P.B. points to the years before 1968, with one important exception.

Changelog

• 2026-10-08 — First published. Every year comes from our Brebbia cabinet and its facts files. We read the Pipedia and pipephil.eu copies again today.