Lorenzo 991 Hexagonal Paneled Brandy Estate Pipe - Diamond Shank Acrylic Saddle For Sale

Six flat panels wrap the bowl, and the shank tapers to a diamond in cross-section: LORENZO 991 is stamped plainly on that shank, a large brandy pipe cut with real presence.

This is a Lorenzo, model 991 as stamped, a large-size hexagonal paneled brandy with a diamond-profile shank and an acrylic saddle stem finished in a fishtail bit. It is fitted with a filter, though no specific bore size is stamped or noted.

Lorenzo traces its roots to Fratelli Lana, established in Gallarate in 1900, the third pipe maker in the Varese district after Rossi (1886) and Ceresa (1897). Tagliabue, a Milan merchant house, began cooperating with Lana in 1922, and by 1939 the works employed 120 people, turning out budget-grade briar sold mostly under the generic wordmark Genuine Bruyere. Tagliabue took full control in 1946, renaming the concern Manufattura di Pipe Tagliabue. Around 1950 Lorenzo Tagliabue himself took over management. He studied the work of Castello and Brebbia and pushed the line upmarket, and in 1969 the brand was renamed Lorenzo Pipes outright. The seventies and eighties are the era collectors prize most: thick beefy walls, flat sitting bottoms, a silk-matte patina in bold red and orange, big Oom Paul bowls, and putty fills applied without apology. Spitfire served as the budget sister line and Lloyd\'s as a second. Lorenzo Tagliabue\'s daughter died in 1983, he retired the same year, the brand was briefly licensed to Comoy\'s of London, and Tagliabue himself died in 1987. Riccardo Aliverti and Gabriella bought all rights in 1988 and resumed production; Aliverti had joined the firm\'s technical side in 1954 and become technical director in 1973. Today the name splits into better Italian-made grades - One Star, Two Star, Three Star, Moscato, Spumante, Grand Canadian - and cheaper Albanian-made lines produced by Tomori.

THE MARKS
- LORENZO 991, stamped on the shank

The brandy shape descends out of the snifter glass it is named for: a short shank, a wide bowl, weight that sits low in the hand rather than the mouth. Here the bowl is faceted into six flat panels rather than left round, each cut plane catching light differently and making the transition out of shank into bowl read as a continuous hexagon rather than a curve. The shank itself is cut on the diamond, four flat facets instead of a cylinder, a deliberate echo of the bowl\'s paneling carried all the way to the stem\'s saddle joint. Diamond shanks are more work to keep symmetrical than round ones, since every facet has to line up with its neighbor on both bowl and stem. The acrylic saddle stem sits low against the shank face rather than stepping down into a taper, and it closes in a fishtail bit, the flat double-lobed slot that spreads smoke across the tongue instead of channeling it in a narrow jet. At 145mm and 76 grams this is a large pipe meant to be gripped across the panels rather than pinched at a round shank.

Finish and grain: see the photographs.

Condition, stated plainly: this is a pre-smoked pipe in fair to good condition overall. The rim shows darkening and a burn mark. A dark spot sits on the outside wall of the bowl; the seller reports it did not originate inside the chamber and appears to be an external scorch, consistent with a lighter held too close rather than a hot smoke. The acrylic stem is in good condition. No cracks, no repairs, and no fills are reported.

THE MEASUREMENTS
- Length: 145.0mm
- Bowl height: 56.0mm
- Bowl width: 43.0mm
- Chamber diameter: 20.0mm
- Chamber depth: 50.0mm
- Weight: 76.0g

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

SKU: 431