Calabria Pipe

Calabria Pipe is a family workshop operating in the town of Mandatoriccio, in the Calabria region of southern Italy. Taking its name directly from its region, the business is known in the pipe world under two distinct identities: on one hand a supplier producing briar blanks sold to other workshops, and on the other a manufacturer turning out finished pipes under its own name.

Mandatoriccio and the Briar Tradition

Mandatoriccio, on the slopes of the Sila Greca, a little inland from the Ionian coast, is a small settlement, yet its place in the pipe-material trade is considered out of proportion to the town's size. According to accounts, the working of tree heath (Erica arborea) roots grown in the region has continued here for roughly a century. The burl that forms where the root meets the trunk — what Italians call the ciocco — is cut, boiled, dried, and, after a long resting period, turned into blocks. The pre-pipe state of these blocks is called abbozzo, or ebauchon in international trade. Although not mentioned as often as Tuscany or Liguria, Calabria is counted as one of the established links in this chain. For a general framework covering all stages of the material, see the entry on briar block supply.