Dating Castello Pipes and Reading the Stamps

Dating Castello pipes relies not on a single year code but on several successive generations of stamps. The workshop was founded in 1947 by Carlo Scotti in Cantù; the wording, letters, and symbols used since then are usually enough to place a pipe within a decade, and after 1987 directly within its year. The following criteria require reading the stamps together: none gives a certain result on its own.

Early Wording

In the years right after founding, pipes were stamped "Mi Reserva," roughly "my own reserve"; records take this wording to mark production between 1947 and 1950. In the following period, "Reg No" was added to the stamp. This number is often mistaken for a shape number; in fact it is only the company's trademark registration number and has nothing to do with the pipe's shape.

The shape number itself does not give a date on its own, but it needs to be read. A digit placed before the number indicates the nature of the shape: a 2 means the bowl has been treated in an ornate variation; a 3 means the carving is out of the ordinary. Reportedly, numbers beginning with 3 were in time replaced by the symbol π; the year this change was made is not documented.

The mark on the mouthpiece is also distinguishing. The first symbol used was the white bar. Castello beginning to work with American distributor Wally Frank changed this: since the distributor's own product line already carried the name "White Bar," a diamond-look stone inlay was designed for the American market. On white acrylic mouthpieces, a black dot is used instead.