Caminetto Pipes

Caminetto's history started in 1959 when Guiseppe Ascorti, from Cucciago, and known to his friends as "Peppino", was hired by Carlo Scotti to work at Castello. Since its foundation in 1947 Castello had contributed substantially to regained glory for Italian pipe making. Talent, persistence and close attention to detail soon made Ascorti one of Scotti's most notable tobacco pipe makers. Ascorti had his own far reaching plan: he wanted to work as a self-employed pipe maker. After his wife Paola had taken over her parent's small greengrocery in the early 60s this plan became more concrete. The additional income from the shop enabled him to buy tools and machines little by little to furnish his own workshop. Ascorti persuaded the young and highly talented pipe maker Luigi Radice to join him. One of the first who agreed to market their pipes was Gianni Davoli, proprietor of a tobacco shop in Milan. The situation was perfect--two pipe makers in search of a distributor, and a pipe merchant in search of a mainstay brand to market. Davoli happily agreed to be the sole distributor worldwide for Ascorti & Radice. To bring about more stability and higher production, Davoli invested a considerable amount of money in modern pipe making machinery, and in doing so went from distributor to co-owner of Caminetto. By 1973 he held the vast majority of the company's capital. The boom, especially in the USA, continued strongly. Production increased steadily as 3,000, 5,000, and then 7,000 pipes per year were made, placing Caminetto at the top of the US sales in their market segment.