Del Grano

Del Grano is a small-scale brand founded in the northern Italian city of Parma that treats pipes and smoking accessories together with jewelry-making craftsmanship. Behind the brand stands Alberto Del Grano, trained as an engineer. The firm is not a mass-production pipe factory; alongside numbered, limited-quantity pipes it also makes cigar cases, shellac-varnished tobacco boxes, humidors, ashtrays and cigar-gauge tools.

No independent record of the founding year has been found; the brand name becomes visible in publications from the early 2000s onward.

Working Method

Del Grano's work is not the product of a single bench. The craft each piece requires is farmed out to separate specialists, whom the founder gathers around his own design. As a result, techniques kept alive today in only a handful of workshops — shellac polishing, marble carving, precious-metal casting — sit side by side in the same catalogue; carved marble and metal casting are combined together in the ashtrays.

The briar blocks used in the pipes are selected from Tuscany. Finished bodies carry yellow or white gold bands, and on some models diamonds set in a gold mount; a model with a black-lacquered body inlaid with white gold and diamonds is a frequently cited example of this approach. The same material scheme extends to accessories beyond pipes as well: cigar cases, ranging from single-cigar tubes to box-shaped holders, are also made of briar and encircled with a gold band.