Bacigalupi

Bacigalupi is a handmade pipe brand stamped with the surname of Marco Bacigalupi, who works in the town of Gavi, in Piedmont in northwestern Italy. It is not a factory but a one-man workshop; annual output, by all accounts, does not exceed a hundred and fifty pieces. This scale means the brand reads less as an industrial concern than as a single maker's signature.

The Maker and the Workshop's Founding

Marco Bacigalupi was born in Genoa in 1952. Pipemaking was not his original profession; according to promotional texts, he worked in design while keeping woodworking as a side pursuit. By the same account, he first put his hand to briar at barely more than a child's age, on a pipe belonging to his father. Whatever date is given, it is clear the brand was preceded by a long amateur period; among the details passed down is that he placed in a pipemakers' competition held in Genoa in the late 1980s.

He left the city in 2007: Bacigalupi gave up Genoa and settled in the inland town of Gavi. It was not until 2012 that the workshop became a full-time occupation. From that date production became regular, and the pipes began to be distributed outside Italy as well, through specialized retailers.