Castello "US" Stamp Question

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esoxhunter

esoxhunter

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Does anyone know any details about when and why Castello began staming "US" on their pipes destined for the American market? Is there any general quality difference when compared with Castellos sold in Europe. I'm reading some conflicting reports and it would be nice to hear from someone who has owned and smoked both versions.

:roll:
 
I've owned and smoked both versions. The smoking differences I can note are regarding the draw in the stem. In some older American versions (with the star inset instead of the white bar) the airway drilling in the acrylic mouthpieces were quite restricted, sometimes so much so that a normal pipe cleaner could barely get through. The modern Castellos (white bar, modern stamping) that I personally smoked were all quite excellent in that area.

As far as the little star inset as the logo for the American issue pipes, the story as I understood it was that someone else at the time had the US rights to the white bar as a pipe logo. Once that company ceased to use it (ceased to exist?) then Castello began using it on all pipes. But, for a long time, the white bar designated european release pipes and the little inset foil star designated American release pipes.

If I'm wrong about this, I'm open to correction.
 
Good question.
I've always wondered why Castello differentiates between pipes sold in the US vs. the rest of the world. To my knowledge, they are the only brand that does this. Puff Daddy's explanation for the reason behind the different stem logos sounds entirely reasonable, but it doesn't explain why they continued marking the pipes with the "US" stamp. The widening of the airway in the stems seems to occur sometime in the 1980's, and definitely makes a huge difference in the general smoking experience, even though some of my favorite pipes are earlier pieces with tight draws. And the white bar logo is not a guaranty that the pipe will have an open draw...
 
What Harlock says is true. I'm sure that there's a simple explanation somewhere, but it might be one where so much time has passed that the person who knew isn't around anymore. I do recall reading a bit of conflicting information regarding nomenclature and logos. There are probably layers of answers to this that occurred over a period of time.

Was it Wally Frank that had the white bar logo for many years? I do remember getting some solid information on this subject, but it's lost to memory and the deceased archives of old forums.
 
Puff Daddy":2y5mnswg said:
Was it Wally Frank that had the white bar logo for many years? I do remember getting some solid information on this subject, but it's lost to memory and the deceased archives of old forums.
Click to expand...
I just looked on Pipephil, and yes, the Wally Frank logo was a dead ringer for the Castello white bar.
 
My research showed the same: That Castello started using the "diamond" because its White Bar looked too much like the Wally Frank version; that at some point after that Castello discontinued using the diamond and went to the White Bar on its US pipes; and then at some even later point they began using the diamond on US pipes on occasion, in order to maintain the diamond's trademark protection. My understanding is that the US stamp began sometime after the first diamond phase began, but I'm just not sure if that's right.

The reason I asked about the US stamp question is because I just bought my first Castello and am trying to date it. It's a KKKK (small and circled) Sea Rock Briar, 25, Made in Cantu Italy, with Carlo Scotti circled. It has a miltary bit marked "Hand Made Castello" and the diamond insert. But it does not have a "US" stamp. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

 
Good Day all;

There is no quality difference between Castello pipes sold in North America and over seas. The US stamp is used to designate pipes sold through the US agent / distributor. For more information on dating Castello's and current SRP's etc ... visit this page

http://www.briarblues.com/castello.htm

Regards
Michael J. Glukler
 
Lets see this beauty!

The only pipe maker I know of who does something different for the United States is LJS, which sells as "Ferndown" in the US. I'm not sure why Mr. Woods does this.
 
I've always wondered why Castello differentiates between pipes sold in the US vs. the rest of the world. To my knowledge, they are the only brand that does this.
Click to expand...
In days past, the circled "L" on a Charatan indicated it was destined for the US.

Transition-era Barling shape numbers were indicative of the intended market. (Ixxx = British; 2xxx &c. overseas).

More recently, I recall one Italian maker (Ser Jacopo I think, but am not certain) only sent clean pipes of a particular series.grade to the USA, while that same series/grade pipe in Europe would likely have fills. People weren't aware of that until their new old stock European pipes started migrating over here via flea bay. Then people bellyached about them "cheapening" their product until somebody figured it out.

:face:
 
Yak":vc35c28w said:
I've always wondered why Castello differentiates between pipes sold in the US vs. the rest of the world. To my knowledge, they are the only brand that does this.
Click to expand...
In days past, the circled "L" on a Charatan indicated it was destined for the US.

Transition-era Barling shape numbers were indicative of the intended market. (Ixxx = British; 2xxx &c. overseas).

More recently, I recall one Italian maker (Ser Jacopo I think, but am not certain) only sent clean pipes of a particular series.grade to the USA, while that same series/grade pipe in Europe would likely have fills. People weren't aware of that until their new old stock European pipes started migrating over here via flea bay. Then people bellyached about them "cheapening" their product until somebody figured it out.

:face:
Click to expand...
Good points.
I forgot about the Lane era Charatans.
 
Supposedly, for many years Dunhill's deeper blasts were rejected by people in Britain but viewed here as indicative of nice, soft Algerian briar, and consequently sought after for that reason.

Who knows ?

:face:
 
I was reading a few months ago on Barling history and was going to mention what Yak did... *shrug*

...I read in other areas that usually there was also pipes that simply sold better over here in the US than other places, so there was regional preferences that a lot of makers followed.

8)
 
Maybe this has been covered.... The white bar is for the European and world market. The reason the pipes imported to the U.S. have the "diamond" logo is because when Castello decided to sell in this country they discovered there was already a pipe maker using a very similar logo. Surprisingly enough it was called "White Bar".
 
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