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Brand Dating Guides
Caminetto had three lives. Pipes made from 1986 often carry a year number in the stamp.
Updated 2026-10-04
Welcome. If your pipe says Caminetto, this guide helps you place it in time.
Caminetto is an Italian brand from Cucciago, a small town near Cantù in the north of Italy.
Its sign is a moustache on the stem. Its old slogan was La Pipa del Baffo, the pipe with the moustache.
The brand had three lives. The first ran from 1968 to 1979. The second began in 1986. The third began in 2013.
Between the first and second life there was a gap of about six years.
Our facts come from two Pipedia pages, one pipephil.eu page and one smokingpipes.com article.
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: many pipes made from 1986 carry their year as a number in the stamp.
1968 to 1979
Giuseppe Ascorti, called Peppino, began work at the Castello pipe factory in 1959.
At the end of 1968 he left Castello to work for himself in Cucciago.
His neighbour Luigi Radice, also a Castello pipe maker, joined him.
Pipedia says Radice came at the end of 1968. The smokingpipes.com article says 1969. The sources differ by one year.
Gianni Davoli, a tobacco shop owner in Milan, became their only seller for the whole world.
The three men became known as I tre Camini, the three chimneys. Caminetto means a small fireplace.
The American shop chain Tinder Box sold the pipes across the USA.
The rough-carved Business line was the most popular. Output grew from 3,000 to 7,000 pipes a year.
By 1973 Davoli owned most of the company. The partners began to argue about quality and control.
In December 1979 Radice left. This ended the first life of the brand.
1980 to 1985
In 1980 Peppino Ascorti also left, and his whole team went with him.
For about three months they sold pipes under the name Sergio. Only 800 to 1,000 were made.
Then Peppino and his son Roberto started a new brand under their family name, Ascorti.
Davoli kept the Caminetto name, but he had no pipe makers left.
Soon after, the old Caminetto workshop burned down.
One Pipedia writer says the brand then almost disappeared from the market.
Some say Peppino still made Caminetto pipes in the 1980s. That writer calls this unclear.
Peppino Ascorti died in 1984.
From 1986
Roberto Ascorti, Peppino's son, bought the Caminetto name, probably in 1985.
Most sources say official making and selling began in 1986. Pipephil.eu also gives 1986 for the new period.
Roberto changed the stamp so that the year can be read.
The older new-period stamp is Caminetto in script, followed by a grid of four numbers.
The four numbers are: shape, finish, series and year, in that order.
The newer stamp has three parts: a finish number, a letter, and the year number.
The letter is usually L, sometimes B. No source knows what it means.
The year number counts from the start of new production. So 01 means 1986.
Example: a pipe stamped 54/6/2/01 is shape 54, sandblast finish, series 2, made in 1986.
Some people say 01 means 1985. Most of the sources we read say 1986.
The new-period stem logo is a big moustache. Pipephil.eu shows it.
From 2013
Tommaso Ascorti, called Tommi, is Peppino's grandson. He was born in 1989.
The smokingpipes.com article says Tommi bought the brand from his family and restarted it in 2013.
Today he works alone. Caminetto is a one-man workshop.
Each year Tommi makes an Event pipe, an old shape made again, with a copper accent.
He still makes the New Dear finish, which goes back to Peppino's time.
We do not know if Tommi's pipes use the same year number. We list this as an open question.
Start with the stem. Look at the shape of the moustache logo, in gold or white.
A thin bird-in-flight moustache belongs to the early first life.
A double comma moustache, like two commas side by side, belongs to the later first life.
A big moustache belongs to the new period, from 1986.
Then read the shank. The earliest stamp names the two makers: ASCORTI, RADICE, CUCCIAGO, CANTU-ITALY.
Other old stamps say HAND MADE IN ITALY, CUCCIAGO (Co) or MADE IN ITALY, CUCCIAGO (CANTU).
The brand name can be in script or in block letters inside quotation marks. Early pipes show both.
In the new-period stamp, the finish number tells the finish, not the year.
0 is a standard smooth, 1 a rare straight grain, 2 a smooth natural, 6 a sandblast.
7 is the New Dear finish and 8 is the Business finish.
KS, KS1, KS2 or KS3 is a size mark. One writer thinks KS means King Size, but he is not sure.
HAND MADE IN ITALY, CUCCIAGO (Co) does not date a pipe. Pipephil.eu shows it on new-period pipes too.
Do not read the finish number as a year. The year is the last number of the stamp.
Capitello is not Caminetto. Enzo Galluzzo made it from 1982 to 1991 in a very similar style.
Ascorti pipes look like Caminettos of about 1976 to 1981. The brand name on the stamp decides.
Sergio pipes of 1980 were made by the same team. They are a separate brand, not a Caminetto.
A Tinder Box shield shows where the pipe was sold in the USA. It does not give a year.
One writer says the collector Harvey Greif may have stamped his own marks on his Caminettos.
Business and New Dear began in the first life and are still made. The line name alone does not date a pipe.
Read the numbers after the script Caminetto on the shank. The last number is the year.
Grid of four numbers, for example 54/6/2/01: shape, finish, series, year
The code is explained by one source only, a collector's post kept on Pipedia. Some read 01 as 1985.
Three-part stamp: finish number, a letter (usually L, sometimes B), year number
Same source as the grid, one source only. It says this is the newer of the two stamp styles.
Look at the shape of the logo, not its colour. Gold or white is a grade sign, not a date.
Thin bird-in-flight moustache
The source gives about 1968/69 to 1974/75. We widened it to whole years. Pipephil.eu calls it the first-period logo.
Double comma moustache
The source gives about 1975 to 1979, 1980 or 1981. One source only for these years.
Big moustache
Pipephil.eu calls it the logo of the new Caminetto period. It gives 1986 for the start.
Read both sides of the shank. The maker stamp is usually on the right side.
ASCORTI / RADICE / CUCCIAGO / CANTU-ITALY
The earliest stamp. Radice left in December 1979, so his name cannot be later. We allow 1980 for old stock.
HAND MADE IN ITALY / CUCCIAGO (Co)
Seen on first-period pipes and on new-period pipes. So this stamp alone gives no date.
A line name gives a first possible year. Most lines give no end year.
EVENT
Tommi Ascorti's yearly special pipe. One source only, the smokingpipes.com article of 2023.
BUSINESS or NEW DEAR
Both began in the first life and are still made. Use the logo or the year number instead.
TINDER BOX GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY
Made for Tinder Box's golden anniversary, about 1978. Our source gives no year. We worked it out, so it needs checking.
What We Don't Know Yet
Published deliberately. If you hold the catalogue, hallmarked example, or period document that closes one of these gaps, write to us — corrections are credited. Every open question across the encyclopedia is gathered on the Open Questions page.
Changelog
Sources
Holding a Caminettoyou can't place? Our shelves usually hold a few — documented to this same standard.
Caminetto in the Shop