Lorenzo

Lorenzo is one of the few names that identify Italian pipes of the 1970s from a distance: thick bowl walls, bulky bodies, a silky matte finish, and paint running from deep red to bright orange. The company behind this look, however, has a history reaching much further back, to the workshop Fratelli Lana, founded in Gallarate in 1900.

It is the third house to work briar in the province of Varese, Lombardy, preceded by Rossi (1886) and Ceresa (1897). The brand took on the name it carries today only in 1969.

The Unstamped Years

The workshop, founded by two brothers, worked only the domestic market at first. Its opening to foreign trade began in 1922 with a partnership entered into with the Tagliabue family, merchants from Milan; orders from Europe grew steadily from that point on. The workforce reached 120 in the 1930s, and the business moved from being a workshop to a factory-scale operation in the Italy of the time. Growth did not carry through to the product: for decades what was made were cheap, unassuming pipes aimed at a broad market. Most carried no brand stamp, with only a general inscription such as "Genuine Bruyere" on the bowl. Since most of the output was made for other firms under their own name, the business never developed a shape language of its own. One trace from these years did carry through to later generations: Romolo Aliverti, who joined the firm in 1920 and rose over time to technical director.