Lorenzo Masala Pot Estate Pipe - Smooth Briar, Oval Shank, Vulcanite Saddle Stem, 9mm Filter, Fishtail Mouthpiece

The shank is stamped Lorenzo Masala - not a shape number, not a grade line, just the two words as the maker cut them.

This is a smooth, straight pot with an oval shank, a vulcanite saddle stem, and a fishtail bit, drilled for a 9mm filter. The shank carries the stamp Lorenzo Masala.

Bowl: briar
Stem: vulcanite
Mouthpiece: fishtail
Filter: 9mm
Stamped: "Lorenzo Masala"

The name on the shank sits inside a longer story the cabinet lets us tell in full. Fratelli Lana founded the firm in 1900 in Gallarate, the third briar house to open in the Varese district after Rossi (1886) and Ceresa (1897). By 1922 the Milanese merchant house Tagliabue had entered a co-operation with the workshop, exports grew through the interwar years, and by 1939 the factory employed 120 workers turning out budget, mass-market pipes, many carrying nothing more than the generic wordmark Genuine Bruyere. Tagliabue took full control in 1946, renaming the works Manufattura di Pipe Tagliabue. Around 1950 Lorenzo Tagliabue took over management himself, studied the work coming out of Castello and Brebbia, and pushed the line upmarket with new, own-style models. In 1969 the firm was renamed outright as Lorenzo Pipes. The 1970s and 1980s became its defining decade in the trade: thick-walled, flat-sitting bowls, a bold silk-matte red-orange stain, big Oom Paul shapes, and a self-description as pipes made for real men with strong hands. A budget sister brand, Spitfire, mirrored the Lorenzo catalogue one for one in smaller, mostly 9mm-filtered form; Lloyd's ran strictly as a seconds line. Tagliabue retired in 1983 after his daughter's death, licensed the name briefly to Comoy's of London, and died in 1987 with the brand nearly gone. Riccardo and Gabriella Aliverti bought all rights from the family in 1988 and resumed production; Riccardo had served as the firm's technical director since 1973, following his father Romolo, who had joined the Lana workshop in 1920. The modern catalogue splits between better Italian-made grades - One Star, Two Star, Three Star, Moscato, Spumante, Grand Canadian - and cheaper lines made in Albania by Tomori.

THE MARKS
- Shank stamped "Lorenzo Masala"

The pot is one of the plainer shapes in the briar canon: a short, wide bowl with a flat-ish base and near-vertical walls, carrying more tobacco capacity for its height than a billiard and less taper than an apple. This one is cut as a straight pot with an oval shank - oval cross-sections are less common on this shape family than round, since round stock is what most drilling jigs and stem tenons are cut to fit; an oval shank has to be shaped and matched to an oval-profile stem seat individually. The stem is vulcanite, cut with a saddle profile: the shank-facing shoulder of the stem sits flush with the shank's own diameter rather than tapering down into it, giving a small visible step where the two parts meet. The bit is cut fishtail, meaning the slot flares into two shallow prongs at the button instead of remaining a single oval opening - a cut that spreads the airflow slightly wider across the tongue than a plain slot does. A 9mm filter runs through the shank and stem, taking a replaceable cartridge that sits in the airway rather than a part that is cleaned and reused.

Smooth finish means the bowl surface is polished rather than blasted or carved back to raise the grain; what a smooth-finished briar shows afterward depends entirely on the block it was cut from, since nothing further is done to hide or enhance the wood's own figure. Finish and grain: see the photographs.

Condition: not yet graded - refer to the photographs; a detailed condition report is available on request.

THE MEASUREMENTS
Length: 146.0mm
Bowl height: 44.0mm
Bowl width: 40.0mm
Chamber diameter: 20.0mm
Chamber depth: 38.0mm
Weight: 52.0g

Ships from the Faridunhill / Pipe Collectors Encyclopedia archive. Worldwide shipping and professional sanitation on every estate pipe.

SKU: 372