Have you ever had that heart-stopping moment when you see someone from your past? I felt that jolt at my new high school when I bumped into a girl I’d fallen for the year before. A whirlwind of nostalgia swept over me before reality hit when she turned out to be a stranger. Not long ago, I felt that same surge twice. It all started when I found a couple of my cherished pipes. Here, let me show them to you.
I can’t say I remember either of those girls’ names from my junior year, but I know all about these two pipes. The stubby one is a Lorenzo Imperia rusticated bent billiard in the company’s 8685 shape. The one on the top, also a Lorenzo, is a Stresa Matera bent egg. It’s number 8708 on the company’s shape chart.
I began smoking a pipe with the help of my Dad fifteen years ago, but Lorenzo got its start in Italy’s Province of Varese around the turn of the twentieth century. The company was called Fratelli Lana when it was founded, and the Lana brothers eventually partnered with the Tagliabue family; wholesalers from Milan. Fratelli Lana pipes were generic, cheap, and unremarkable in nearly every way until about 1950, when Lorenzo Tagliabue took over.
Lorenzo’s pipes were never expensive like a Dunhill or a handmade Savinelli Autograph, but they were striking. After Tagliabue renamed the company after himself in 1969, his wares achieved a cult-like following at college campuses of all places. Period ads identify Lorenzos as “made for real men with strong hands!” The reputation stuck, and it persisted up through Tagliabue’s retirement in 1983.
My Lorenzos are probably from the late 70s or early 1980s, which I think is about the time my dad started smoking. I’ve always prized the contrast between the Imperia’s dark stain and amber stem, but I think the stem of the Stresa Matera is equally beautiful paired with the red finish of the briar. The Imperia is chunky and masochistic with razor-sharp geometry, but the Stresa is flowing and organic. Through their differences, they complement each other perfectly.
I looked at both pipes the other day and held them in my palm. That simple act flooded me with memories! I smoked both of them a lot during my college years. I never had classes on Wednesdays, so I’d pick up a movie from Scott’s supermarket to watch before work. I remember puffing on the Stresa Matera with the window open. A pair of fans blew the smoke outside. Pipe in hand, I remember guzzling cans of grape soda just as Deliverance took a dark turn.
Days with morning classes presented the opportunity for a different ritual. I’d park across the St. Joseph River from campus and cross the fog-laden suspension bridge on foot. On chilly days, I wore a peacoat that both pipes fit perfectly inside. I could light one as I stepped out of my apartment, enjoy it through the traffic lights, continue puffing across the bridge, and extinguish the bowl before reaching the heart of the campus. There, it would slip back into my peacoat pocket. No one was any wiser.
There were some early fails too. Choosing the craggy Imperia for my first attempt at buffing a pipe was a rookie mistake, especially since I didn’t think to heat the wax first. Later, there was the time I filled it with watermelon shisha meant for a hookah. Even later, I’ll never forget the terrifying sight of my roommate morphing into a human tree after we took turns smoking the psychoactive plant salvia, which was legal back then, from the Stresa Matera. A few years later, I totaled my car in a funeral procession while puffing regular Carter Hall in the Imperia.
After Dad died in 2011, both Lorenzos became sources of solace. I found little comfort in actually smoking them for the next decade, but I held onto the pipes as cherished mementos of our shared hobby. Despite their retirement and the faint scent of watermelon lingering in the Imperia, I’ve preserved both Lorenzos. I’ll probably never smoke them again, but they’re here as tangible connections to a number of cherished memories.
A couple years ago, I learned that the legacy tobacco brand Erik Stokkebye 4th Generation commissioned Chapuis-Comoy’s Antoine Grenard to design a new series of pipes. In both rusticated and smooth Rhodesian shapes, the pieces were striking! They were strangers, but happening across them instantly reminded me of my Lorenzos.
Then I recalled all those memories I recounted. In turn, I started thinking about my dad. I was floored when I learned the name of the pipe series, “Fathers, Friends and Fire 2022.” I bought one of each immediately and got to thinking. The fire part of the pipes’ names satisfies itself when you smoke them, but Dad’s no longer here to help with the father aspect.
The pipes arrived a few days after I ordered them. They may not be exact replicas of my Italian Lorenzos, but they exude the same essence and share many of the same characteristics. Like the Lorenzos and the stranger I passed in high school, they evoke memories of my early days of independence.
I don’t have any fathers or friends who savor smoking a pipe with except my brother these days, so I decided to let him pick one for himself. He chose the rusticated version. From here on out, both will serve as the spiritual successors to theLorenzos Dad gave me. To me, they embody a continuity in our shared tradition now that my brother and I are next in line.
Today, I feel as well positioned to find my place in the world with my smooth “Fathers, Friends and Fire” pipe as I was when I kept my Lorenzos in my peacoat. It’s been thirteen years since Dad died, but I’m excited to leave the memories of shisha, salvia, and car wrecks firmly in the past as my brother and I fire our new treasures up and start our own tradition.
