Italy
Great example of success of a pipemaker from a small Italian town! GiGi is a nikname of Luigi “Gigi” Crugnola born in 1934 in Gavirate (a municipality in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 60 kilometres (37 mi) northwest of Milan). By a lucky coincidence the same year Rovera pipe company was founded by Giorgio Rovera along with partners Angelo and Adele Bianchi, who also happened to be Luigi Crugnola’s Uncle and Mother, respectively. In 1964 Luigi took over the company and changed the brand name to GiGi.
Today GiGi produces pipes mostly for export to USA and to many other countries in the World. Good Italian quality for the reasonable price!
The pipe markings are “GIGI \ COLLECTION \ ITALIA”, “LIBERTY”, “1411”, “MADE IN ITALY”. The length is 12.6 cm (4.96″), bowl’s height is 4.8 cm (1.89″). External diameter of the bowl is 3.6 cm (1.42″), internal diameter is 2.0 cm (0.79″). The depth is 3.4 cm (1.34″) and this pipe weights 46 gr. Briar, vulcanite stem, no filter. Despite the flat bottom the pipe isn’t a sitter, that’s perhaps just an artisans vision of the most interesting shape. The fancy collar has some age related roughness visible under bright light, but technically there’s everything fine and reliable. Just a charm of the age 🙂
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