Armellini

Armellini is a small family workshop operating in the village of Barasso, in the province of Varese in northern Italy's Lombardy region. Founded in 1959 by Mauro Armellini, it passed to his daughter Vilma Armellini after the founder's death in 2004. The workshop continues today with a third generation also involved, and is counted among the few brands in Italian pipe making with a woman at the head of the bench.

From Tinsmithing to Pipes

Barasso is the village that was once home to the Rossi factory, at one time counted among the world's largest pipe manufacturers; in the region, pipe making has been an ordinary livelihood for generations. Mauro Armellini's actual trade was tinsmithing; according to the story, a bet made at the village café led him to Rossi's bench in his spare time. The family's history states that by the time he founded his own business in 1959, he already had nearly fifteen years of craft experience behind him. Some sources place the founding in 1960.

The workshop's opening to the outside world was sped up through a connection formed with an American wholesaler who liked the products and carried them overseas. In its busiest period, with around ten people working alongside the family, annual output at the business reached twenty thousand pipes, and in some years exceeded that figure. Records indicate that the pipe President Sandro Pertini gave to national team coach Enzo Bearzot after Italy won the 1982 World Cup also came from this workshop.

Some pipe websites write that Mauro Armellini worked for a time within Savinelli and had a hand in developing that brand's well-known rustic finishes. Since the family's own history records no such period, this information should not be considered confirmed.

Vilma Armellini and the Generational Change

When Mauro Armellini died in 2004, the business passed to Vilma, the second of four sisters. Vilma had learned both the administrative side of the business and every stage of pipe making at her father's side over the years; by the time she took over, she is said to have long been finishing pipes on her own. Production continues in a small workshop and is limited to roughly 1,500 pieces a year. Vilma's son Matteo works at the workshop alongside his mother, representing the third generation.

A pipe club has met in the workshop's vicinity since 2008. Some of its one-off pieces are dedicated to artists such as Salvador Dalí and Giorgio de Chirico; the design idea for these pieces belongs to the club's vice chairman, Modesto Verderio, and their making to Vilma Armellini.

Production Philosophy and Lines

The workshop states that it requires the briar blocks it works to have been cured for at least a year. The share left to machines is deliberately kept narrow; the bulk of shaping is done on the hand bench. This working method, not bound to a mold, has meant that freehand bowls following the root piece's natural shape have become the workshop's best-known work. Alongside a smooth polished finish, rustic and sandblasted treatments are also used on the surface; see the entry on surface finishes for these distinctions.

Alongside hand-shaped one-off pieces, there are also classic lines established in the catalog. These include Suprema, Chairman, Elite, Cometa, Chicco, Moyenne, Lolita, and the silver-banded Spigot, as well as a line dedicated to Canadian and Lovat bowls.