Lorenzetti

Lorenzetti is a pipe workshop founded in 1934 by Otello Lorenzetti in the town of Recanati in Italy's Marche region. Starting at home with a few rented lathes and twenty to thirty pipes a day, the business grew across later generations into a family firm turning out tens of thousands of pipes a year and exporting to many countries. Production has since stopped.

The Birth of a Workshop in Recanati

In the first half of the twentieth century, Recanati was home to several small pipe workshops; Catena Remigio, named in the records, is one of them and is cited as the place where the brand's founder learned the craft. Born in 1911 in Castelnuovo, part of the town, and with schooling that ended at primary level, Otello Lorenzetti completed eighteen months of military service in Cividale, in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, then began working for himself in 1934. The first workshop was part of the home, the lathes were rented, and daily output did not exceed twenty to thirty pipes. Products were delivered directly to tobacconists around Macerata, San Severino, and Civitanova Marche.

The decade following its founding was interrupted twice by the war. The founder was conscripted in 1935 and sent to units in Africa, not returning until January 1937; he was called up again in October 1940 and did not return home until 1943. Marinella, whom he married in 1940, became the second defining figure of the business during and after these years.