Gamboni
Gamboni Handmade Pipes
Gian Maria Gamboni about himself:
I was born in Florence, Italy, but usually I live between Rome, Milan and the west coast of Sardinia. I currently work as network engineer in Switzerland.
Pipes are my passion, about fifteen years ago, when I began to collect smoking pipes, I would have never thought that one day I would build my own pipes, but two years ago (2007), the curiosity brought me to make the first one. It was a surprize for me when that same day a friend of mine took that brand new pipe for himself. Then I made a second one, and so on.
Now I build about ten pipes per month. Each pipe is unique in shape, dimensions and color, crafted by hand from the aged bare briar block, coming from Calabria or Tuscany, that I personally select in the place. All of my stems are made in volcanite and sometimes in lucite or horn. I tend to realize smooth and polished pieces, but anyway, during the work, some minor impefection may arise on the wood surface: in that case I will rusticate or sandblast.
Two words about grading system, since 2009/01:
R/X : Rusticated
D [COL] : Dark Sandblasted, named Dark
P [COL] : Natural Sandblasted, named Opaque
C [COL] : Clear briar surface, named Clear
B [COL] : Flamed / Birdeyed, named Bright
S [COL] : Narrow flame / birdeye, named Shine
The symbol COL, indicates Collector Series.
The format of stamp is [COL] X YY Z, where:
X means the grade
YY, Z respectively mean the year of production and the years of activity.
Example: COL P 09 2 -> Collector, Natural sandblasted, made in 2009, second year of activity.
Gian Maria Gamboni E-mail: gmgpipes@yahoo.es Website: My WebSite